Who Would Have Guessed
by daughterofBarricade
Summary: They fought whenever they were together and everyone knew that the two elves couldn't stand eachother.At least that's how used to be,now things are changing and a strong bond is forming between the two former rivals. Peter x Bryony *elf centered*
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Well, I decided to help contribute to the extremely small fandom of Arthur Christmas. However, this fic is gonna focus big time on Bryony Shelfley and Peter (Steve's assistant elf). I was originally gonna start working on this other Arthur Christmas fic but then I had this dream about these two elves and the plot bunny just won't leave me alone! Hopefully this fic will turn out ok, so enjoy! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bryony Shelfley, Arthur, Steve, Peter, etc. they all belong to Aardman. The only thing I own is the last name "Jones" that I choose for Peter. Later on their will be some elf oc's but I'll talk about them in the next chapter. **

'Well this was a 'fine' situation I've found myself in!' Bryony thought miserably as she looked at the male elf that was currently trying to open the door that had locked once it closed. Said elf was none other than Peter Jones, the right hand assistant to Steve. At the moment, he had both his feet on the door while his two hands pulled at the knob.

"That's not going to work." Bryony stated flatly while crossing her arms. Peter ceased his attempts for a few seconds to turn his head and glare at the female, "Well I don't see _you_ trying to find a way out!" He snapped back before returning to jiggling the doorknob.

Bryony frowned, "Well there's really nothing I can do since your trying to open the door that's obviously locked from the outside!"

Peter stopped, "Well then use your HOHO and try to call someone to let us out of this storage room." He demanded without turning his head and continued on with his efforts. "I lost mine when it fell into the ocean." A huff from Peter made her continue, "Well where's _your_ HOHO?" She demanded.

"I forgot it in my room." Was the reply from the right hand elf.

"Unbelievable." Bryony sighed. Peter let go of the door knob and dropped down on the floor, landing on his feet before turning and walking up to his 'fellow' assistant elf till he was only a few inches away from her. Glaring down at her, he narrowed his eyes before responding, "You want to know what's unbelievable miss Shelfley? Unbelievable is you, Arthur and Grand-Santa going against orders and running off on Christmas to deliver _one_ present to a child. Unbelievable is you all going all around the world and almost exposing us, _unbelievable_ is _Arthur_ becoming the next Santa when the position rightfully belonged to Steve! Arthur _stole_ Steve's right!"

Peter turned and grabbed onto the door knob once more before continuing, "And what's really unbelievable is that of all the elves in the North Pole, I got locked in a bloody supply closet with a crazy, gift wrapping obsessed elf!" As he said the last words, he gave the door a violent jiggle before letting go and sitting on the floor. Obviously that strategy wasn't working so they would just have to wait till someone walked by and unlocked the door. 'Who knows how long that'll be.' Peter thought miserably.

Bryony, meanwhile was glaring daggers at Peter. Making up her mind, she practically stomped over to the elf. "First off, yes Arthur, Grand-Santa and I defied orders to deliver a single present but we did it because _you and Steve_ didn't want to go deliver it. Second, we _almost_ exposed ourselves. The key word is _almost_. If anything, the humans thought we were aliens. Third, Arthur _earned_ the right to be Santa, he never stole the position! And last off, don't you ever call me crazy again! Besides, you're no joy to be around either!" With that being said, Bryony kicked one of Peters' boots before turning her back to him and crossing her arms.

"Oh you're just asking for it soldier!" Peter retorted while standing up again.

"And what are _you_ going to do about it?" Bryony demanded while sending an icy glare his way.

Peter blinked. What _could_ he do? Despite being Steve's right hand elf, no one really listened to him and he knew what everyone viewed him as pathetic and the only time anyone would listen to Peter was if Steve was around. Steve wasn't here so his threat just fell on empty. Sinking back to the ground in defeat, Peter let his head drop back against the wall with his eyes closed.

The sound of clicking caught his attention and his eyes shot open and he looked over at where Bryony was sitting against the wall on the opposite side of him. In her hands was a HOHO! "I thought you said you didn't have your HOHO!" Peter demanded angrily. Bryony frowned at him, she really liked Peter more when he was quiet.

"I don't." Was her reply before she went back to texting.

"I see it right there in your hands!" Peter insisted. He could feel himself getting frustrated.

"It's not mine, I told you mine fell into the ocean and I'm still waiting for my new one to come in." Bryony explained while pushing the send button. Hopefully Arthur would get the message and come to her rescue. "Then who's is it?" Rolling her eyes, she answered the annoying elf, "Its Kevin's. He loaned me his to borrow for work."

Peter furrowed his brows, "I asked you if you had a HOHO."

Bryony smirked, "You asked me if I had _my_ HOHO which I don't, but you never asked me if I had _a_ HOHO." She checked the phone and saw that Arthur hadn't replied yet. "Anyway, I sent a message to Arthur to come let us out so all we have to do is wait."

Peter leaned against the wall, "The sooner he comes the better." He grumbled while settling himself on the floor and closing his eyes. Bryony nodded in agreement before leaning against the wall herself. "That has to be the first thing we've agreed on." She mused and then rolled her eyes when Peter chose to ignore her.

'Why does he have to be so difficult to work with?' The wrapping elf wondered as she looked over the form of the assistant. Ever since they had first met, they did nothing but argue or try to avoid each other as much as possible. Normally Bryony was nice to everyone but it seemed that Peter knew how to bring out the worst in her. 'Too bad his attitude can't be as good as his looks-what what?' Bryony blinked in shock at her own thought.

Shaking her head Bryony scolded herself, 'Where did that come from Miss. Shelfley? Peter Jones is your enemy and you do _not_ think he's good looking!' Thinking this seemed to start a battle in her mind.

Her more timid, lovey-dovey, side protested, 'But look at him sitting there looking all cute with his adorable hair cut, and his little red tie and-'

'No, no, no he doesn't look cute! He's a rude, arrogant, prick and it's best not to think that about him. Besides, your supposed to marry Kevin remember?' Her tougher, stricter side argued back.

Bryony's timid mind didn't back down, ' It's not like I actually like Kevin. If anything, the only reason why I'm marrying him is to please my parents.'

The wrapping elf dropped her head in her hands at the conflicting voices in her head, "Shut up!" She hissed. Peter opened his eyes and rose a brow at the supposedly crazy elf, "I didn't say anything." Blushing furiously, Bryony shook her head, "I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to…oh never mind!" There was no way she was going to tell her rival about the 'voices' in her head. It was bad enough he thought she was crazy and mentioning that would only confirm his suspicions. After an awkward silence, Peter cleared his throat, " So is anyone coming to our rescue or not?"

Checking the HOHO and not seeing any sort of reply, Bryony shrugged, "I don't know, Arthur hasn't answered back."

Peter rolled his eyes while standing up and stretching. "Well this has been 'fun' and all but now I really need to get out." He announced while glancing at the door. "We both really need to get out." Bryony sighed. Peter shook his head, "No I mean I really have to go to the bath room. I had two cups of expresso before we got locked in here."

"Oookay I didn't need to know about your sudden urge to empty your bladder." Bryony stated while closing her eyes. Steve's right hand elf smirked, "Then I suggest you try calling for help again before I decided to go on the wall." Of course he wouldn't really do that but it was nice to see the female's look of disgust cross her face. Gagging at the thought, Bryony started to text another reply when the HOHO started to vibrate. Checking on who was sending a message she let out a sigh of relief when she saw the name 'Arthur'. Thank goodness!

Quickly reading the message she looked up at Peter. "Looks like your going to have to hold it cause Arthur's on his way with the key. "About time." Grumbled the male elf.

Sure enough, a moment after receiving the text, Arthur arrived at the locked storage room and freed the two elves. Bryony smiled up at her friend/boss with a cheerful "Thanks!" while Peter mumered a quiet, "Thank you sir." Before running off to the restrooms.

Arthur watched his brothers' assistant run off before turning to his own helper, "He didn't give you too much of a hard time did he?" He asked.

Bryony shook her head, "No more than he usually does, I just hope I don't get locked in a room with him again." She piped up while she and Arthur walked down the hall towards his room to reply to some children's letters.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Heads up, this is a long note! Before I let you all read the second chapter, I will like to thank ****Milu Georgia**** and ****rococoprincess**** for leaving me reviews for the first chapter. I'm glad you two are enjoying the story so far :D**

**Here's a list of elves that are going to appear in the fic (also to answer Milu Georgia's question, yes Arthur is going to making appearances in the fic as well as the rest of the Clause family). A few of the elves are seen in the movie and I managed to find their names in the Arthur Christmas jr novel. Some others are my own oc's. I also found a list on the web of all the elf jobs that I assigned to some of the characters. **

**Elves:**

**Peter Jones (last name made up by me)- Steve's right hand assistant elf(according to the movie)**

**Bryony Shelfley (as named in movie/novel)– Wrapping elf/Arthur's assistant( according to the movie)**

**Andrew Marino (as named in the jr novel) – Special Santa Unit elf (he was the elf that took the batteries out of the toy during the 'waker' scene)**

**Norah Gates (First name found in novel, last name made up by me) – Paramedic (I just gave her a random job)**

**Carlos Conner (as named in the novel) – Field elf (one of the elves that appeared at the beginning of the film.)**

**Sabrina Harris (my own oc) – Gift Sorter elf (position given by me)**

**Tardy Baynham (as named in the novel) – Alarms/Gadgets elf (he's also a field elf, he's that elf in the movie that was sitting in the S-1 brushing the teeth of that tooth gadget thing; after getting yelled at by that one elf he says something like 'What ever happened to good will towards men?')**

**Deborah Anderson (first name found in the novel, last name made up by me) – Mission Control elf (she's the elf that told Steve about the noisy toy during the 'waker' scene)**

**William Tankenson (First name made up by me but his last name was found in the novel) – Helmsman elf (he's the pilot of the S-1. In the film and novel, he asks Santa if he's looking forward to retirement).**

**Kathy Miller (another one of my oc's) – S-1 crew elf (position given by me)**

**Kevin Hill (my oc fiancé of Bryony and the main antagonist of the fic) – Wrapping elf **

**Tanya Turner (another oc and the secondary antagonist in the story) – Field elf**

**Then of course we have the Clause family but we already know all about them;) other than that these are the main characters of the story. Later on I'll introduce a few minor oc's (such as Bryony and Peter's parents) but I won't go into detail about them till their chapters come up. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Arthur, Steve, Mr. and Mrs. Clause, Grand-Santa, Peter, Bryony, Andrew, Norah, Carlos, Tardy, Deborah, or Tankenson. They all belong to Aardman. The only thing I own are my oc's which at the moment include, Sabrina, Kathy, Kevin, and Tanya.**

**Now on with the chapter! :D**

The rest of the day went by fine without anymore incidents and Bryony and Peter did well off in avoiding each other. Finally the day came to an end and many elves were roaming the halls, heading off to their rooms or going to the large cafeterias for dinner or some, like Bryony, headed to the elf lounge rooms. Upon entering, Bryony walked to the table her and her friends always sat at, and plopped down in the empty chair with a sigh.

One of her friends, a field elf by the name, Carlos, smiled in her direction, "Long day Bryony?" He asked as the wrapping elf nodded and rubbed her eyes, "Too long." She mumbled before glancing at her other friends which included, Andrew, Norah, Carlos, Sabrina, Tardy, Deborah, William and Kathy. They were all leaning back in their chairs while chatting with each other.

"I heard you got locked in a storage room with Peter." Sabrina stated while smirking at Bryony playfully. The elf rolled her eyes, "You heard right. We both needed something from the storage and when the door slammed shut it ended up locking us in for about an hour or so." This caused the group to laugh at her misfortune.

Kathy leaned closer to the wrapping elf, "So did you two do anything while you were locked in?" She asked with a mischievous look.

Bryony furrowed her brow, "Well…we argued quite a bit." She replied thoughtfully, not really knowing what her friend was talking about. Kathy giggled, "Did you two do anything else at all?"

"What do you mean?"

The S-1 crew elf rose a brow before elaborating, "You know, did you two…" She left the sentence unfinished and grinned as Bryony finally understood what she was asking. "What! Ew Kathy, no! Nothing else happened! I can't believe you would even ask that!" Bryony exclaimed while blushing like crazy which made her naturally red cheeks even redder.

Everyone at the table cracked up laughing. Bryony sunk down in her chair in embarrassment, "You all should know how much we don't like each other." She mumbled in defense. Kathy nodded while wiping small tear as her laughter subsided. "I know, I was just messing with you." She shrugged while Bryony's face returned back to its normal color.

"That wasn't cool Kathy, but it was still soooo funny!" Sabrina scolded before giggling.

Tardy looked up from the gadget he was tinkering with , "Watch out, Bryony's gonna get you back when you least expect it."

This time Bryony smirked, "That's right, next time you're gonna be the run to turn red like a tomato." Deborah cleaned her glasses before placing them back on, "Good luck finding anything to embarrassed her with, you know Kathy keeps most of her secrets between her and William here." She motioned her head towards the helmsman of the S-1, William.

Said elf took off his cap so he could scratch his head before putting it back on, "Trust me there's not much you can humiliate her with." He said while putting an arm around Kathy and smiled at her who gave him a dreamy smile back.

Norah sided with Bryony, "Well Kathy it looks like you lucked out. Sorry Bryony."

Bryony snapped her fingers, "Darn."

Andrew sat up and cleared his throat, "Heads up Bryony, here comes your fiancé." He muttered while looking at the lounge entrance. The group turned to where Andrew was looking and sure enough, Bryony's arranged fiancé was making his way to the table with a snooty, superior look. Bryony could feel her ears droop slightly as the elf she was going to marry drew closer. She had absolutely no attraction to this elf and had only agreed to say yes to the proposal because she knew it would make her parents happy.

As too why her parents choose this elf out of the thousands of others, was because, according to her mother and father, Kevin was well educated, strong, had a high ranking in the wrapping battalion, was good looking and most of all, he apparently had good breeding. In Mr. and Mrs. Shelfley's eyes, Kevin was the perfect elf to marry their daughter . 'Perhaps now I can finally become a grand-mother!' Bryony's mother had said the night this arrangement had been made official.

Kevin stopped at their table and gave her friends a look as if they weren't worth being in his presence before giving Bryony his most charming smile, "There you are Bryony I was looking for you." He started while walking around the table and stopping when he was right next to her. The female elf looked up at him with a raised brow,

"Oh?"

Her fiancé continued, "Yes, I heard about your day trapped in a storage closet with that…Peter fellow and I figured you would like to wind down by having dinner with me." He said this more as a command rather than an offer. Bryony frowned, "I'm not really hungry, see Arthur and I had a sandwich today while we answered some letters. But thank you for the offer." She said as politely as she could.

It was Kevin's turn to frown, "Oh I insist, at least come have a drink with me." He stated while gently pulling Bryony up from her seat. Seeing as she wasn't going to win with him, she obliged, "Fine. I'll see you all later!" She called back to her friends who were all glaring at Kevin's back. This wasn't the first time the wrapping elf had snatched their friend from them. He was always barging in on their conversations with Bryony and pulling her away while giving some pathetic excuses, one being that as his future wife, she had to spend more time with him. Or some garbage like that.

Bryony knew that wasn't the whole case. She knew that Kevin didn't like her friends and thought himself better than all of them. 'If things continue like this then it's going to be a long, difficult marriage.' She grumbled in her mind as she followed her fiancé to the cafeteria. They walked to a table near the center of the room where Bryony sat down with a sigh, 'Go figure he would want to sit here. Kevin always did like being the center of attention.'

"Wait here while I go get us something to eat." Kevin ordered while walking away.

Bryony watched him leave before facing forward and putting her chin in her hands. She then blinked in surprise when she saw who was sitting just a couple of tables away. 'Oh great. Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse, _he_ had to be here.' She thought with a frown.

The added object of her misery was none other than Peter. Luckily he hadn't noticed his rival giving his attention was on the smaller female elf that was fawning over him. Bryony recognized the elf as Tanya Turner, a bratty elf that had a taste for high ranking elves. Giving that Peter was an assistant elf and the right hand to Steve Clause, it was no wonder why Tanya was currently after him. At the moment, Peter was leaning away from Tanya with a look of uninterested while Tanya was holding onto his tie and pulling him closer to her.

"So Pete, I overheard that you got locked in a room with that mean, nasty Bryony." Tanya was saying with a jealous tone. Bryony rolled her eyes, had _everyone_ heard about the incident? It seemed like everyone was talking about it. 'And what's with the 'mean, and nasty' comment about me?' she fumed while Tanya continued,

"You weren't being _naughty_ in there were you?" She asked while searching Peter's eyes. Peter huffed while gently working Tanya's hand off his tie. "No! We weren't doing anything, now if you'll excuse me," at this he stood up while Tanya gave a disappointed look, "I'm going to go take a shower-don't look at me like that- and then I'm going to bed." With that he walked out of the cafeteria leaving Tanya to pout at the table.

Bryony shuddered at the recent memory of Tanya's face when Peter declared that he was going to take a shower. The moment the words 'I'm' and 'shower', a look of sexual hunger had crossed her face. 'Looks like Peter has his hands full as well.' Bryony thought as Kevin returned with a couple of drinks. "I saw Peter leave just now." He stated while taking a sip of his drink. Bryony nodded, "Yeah it seems he has an unwanted admirer." She replied while drinking from her own cup.

"I'm surprised that anyone would admire that annoyance." Kevin mused in a bored tone. He then grinned at his future wife, "Then again, I wouldn't doubt that the reason why he rejects any woman is because he probably swings the opposite way."

Bryony's brows rose in shock, "Kevin!"

The 'fellow' wrapping elf shrugged, "Think about it, he's never dated any woman and he has a crush on Steve."

Bryony scowled, "First off, while he hasn't dated any woman I know that no one has seen him dating a bloke. Second, it's not a crush, he just…hero-worships Steve." She said while holding up her fingers as she listed her counter arguments. Kevin sniffed, "Say what you want but I still think little mister right hand elf is gay."

She really didn't know why she felt offended at these statements, but she did and the young female had just enough of his insults and attitude. Standing Bryony cleared her throat before addressing her unfortunately future husband, "Well I'm sorry to say this, but I'm feeling a bit tired. I think I'll head over to my room and turn in for the night. Good night Kevin." She announced before walking away.

"I know we're not married yet, but there's more than enough room in my bed if you're interested!" Kevin replied just before Bryony was out of ear reach. The she elf froze and turned to the male. "No thank you." Was her curt reply before she left the room.

There was no way _that_ was ever going to happen…at least not until she was fully wed.

"I really hope tomorrow will be a better day." She said to herself as she headed to her room.

**A/N: Well there's chapter 2. As you can see, there's some T-rating material in here which leads to me saying that throughout this story, there will be a bit of swearing (ex: hell, crap, damn, stupid, shut up, etc.; you know the minor stuff) and a wee bit of foul language (ex: F***, bi***, etc.; these will only be used **_**very rarely**_** like if one of the characters gets pissed or what not.) I know it's gonna be a little weird to read about Christmas elves cursing but if you look at it, I doubt they are all perfect angels. Look at that one elf from the film that scanned the little boy at the beginning. The kid was on the naughty list yet the elf cheated and scanned himself and only came up with "82% good". Obviously that elf has done a few 'naughty' things if he had that score.**

**Now on to the sexual hints. This fic will have suggestive sexual tones but that is about it. For all those dirty birdies out there who like to read the M-rated stuff, I'll post the 'naughty bedroom' scenes in the Misc. Movies section. It'll be titled ****Who would have guessed: Lemons****. It's not up yet since I don't have any scenes to post up.**

**Another heads up, there's gonna be some violence in some later chapters.**

**Well till next time u guys. :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Wow five reviews in two chapters! Not bad, not bad at all so thank you to my readers for leaving your reviews, they really make my day. :D**

**Well I don't really have much to say in this note so I'll just let you read chapter 3.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own many of the Arthur Christmas characters, most of them belong to Aardman. The only thing I own are my oc's which include, Sabrina, Kathy, Kevin and Tanya.**

The next Morning

"Peter I'm going to need you to take these to Arthur please." Steve instructed while handing his assistant elf a stack of children's letters. Peter put on a false cheerful smile as he took the pile from his boss. "Of course, right away sir!" the assistant piped up while walking out of the room. As soon as he closed the door behind him, his fake smile fell and he scowled.

He then began to walk in the direction where he knew his least favorite elf was working with the new klutzy Santa. 'This is just the story of my life.' The elf mumbled in his head, 'I'm just going to walk in, give them the stupid letters, and then walk out. No words and I'm not even going to look at Bryony if I can help it.' Peter coached himself.

After what happened yesterday he didn't want to even see Bryony and he just wanted to stay the hell away from the annoying elf.

A couple of elves came walking from the opposite direction and snickered when they saw him, "How's your day going so far Peter?" One of them asked while the other added, "Yeah, have you gotten locked in any more closets with Miss. Shelfley?" At this, the two burst out laughing and continued on their way, leaving a steaming Peter behind. As the right hand assistant elf made to continue on his own way, he could still hear the teasing elves talking amongst themselves and his acute hearing picked up an a couple of final words.

"That Peter…what a loser!" This caused the elves to burst out laughing once more before they rounded a corner. Peter turned to glare but only found an empty hall. He thought about going after them and giving them a word or two but thought better against it. When he was younger, he had tried that strategy with a bully elf and ended up with a black eye for a little over a week.

'Forget it, they're not worth it.' He reasoned while continuing on his way yet the loser comment kept repeating in his mind. It wasn't the first time someone insulted him either to his face, or more often, behind his back. One would think that as the right hand assistant to Steve Clause he would be treated with more respect but he got the exact opposite. Everyone treated him okay when he was with Steve but the moment they separated that's when the harsh words would come flying out.

Over the years, Peter has heard various insults and called many different names from 'teacher's pet' to 'loser'. But the one thing that drove him crazy was the rumor that he was attracted to those that were the same sex as him.

Apparently everyone saw his fondness of Steve as a 'crush'. Whether or not Steve knew about this rumor Peter didn't know. Either way Peter knew for a fact that this little gossip was all false. Yes Peter idolized Steve and he admired him greatly, but it was in a brotherly way. Having lost his father at a young age, due to a polar bear attack, he never had the chance to gain any brothers or sisters of his own. So of course when Steve chose Peter as his assistant and the two started to hang around each other often, Peter had begun to see Peter as an older brother figure.

So the fact was, Peter had absolutely no romantic attraction towards Steve. Just a one-sided brotherly bond. Unfortunately, no one saw it like this and their suspicions of his homosexual orientation was backed up with more 'proof' which included the fact that he had never dated a woman.

In Peters opinion this was weak evidence, the only reason why he had never dated or flirted with a girl was because he really didn't know how to. His father died when Peter was only five years old; at this age, he was still too young to take an interest in girls and was still far away from puberty for his dad to tell him about the 'birds and the bees' and how to court a woman. When he reached his early teen years, his mother explained the difference between a male and female elf as well as what adults did behind closed/locked doors. She had even given him some hopeful pointers in how to court a girl but they were all 'old school' hints and didn't work on the newer, younger generation who preferred the perverted pickup lines instead of the respectful, polite ones his mother and father had grown up with.

Due to his unwillingness to move with the trends, Peter was left behind while all the other male elves went out on dates with the females.

"Peeeeeterrrrrr!" A sing-song voice called down the hall and caused said elf to snap out of his thoughts.

'Speaking of females…' Peter groaned as he saw Tanya running down the hall towards him. He had no interest in this particular elf and hated spending any time with her. He would rather spend a day with Arthur and Bryony than spend a minuet with this high rank loving phony that he knew was only interested in him due to his position.

He let out an 'oof' as Tanya wrapped her arms around him in a painfully tight hug in which he was sure he could feel his back pop in a few places and he was quickly running out of air. After a couple of seconds, Tanya released her 'death hug' and beamed up at Peter with a seductive smile. "So Pete," She started while tracing a finger around his chest in circles, "Where are you off too?" the she elf asked innocently.

Clearing his throat, Peter responded with a hint of annoyance, "Well, I'm heading over to Arthur's office to deliver some more letters." He lifted the pile of envelopes to show Tanya who gave them an uninterested look before smiling at Peter once more. "Are you doing anything after that?" She asked hopefully. "Yes I have to get back to Steve and don't you have training to do?" Peter replied while closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose.

Tanya giggled, "My battalion commander called in sick so I have the day off. Maybe you could convince Steve to let _you___take the day off too. Then we can meet up in one of our rooms." She hinted while pressing up against the right hand elf. Peter blinked before gently pushing her away. "I don't think so, sorry." He insisted while moving around her so he could deliver the letters and then get back to Steve and away from this horny girl.

"Oh come on!" Tanya pleaded.

"No Tanya, now I have to get back to work." With that Peter turned and walked down the hall, leaving a scowling Tanya behind.

'That was close.' Peter thought as he rounded the final corner that led to Arthurs office. He stopped at the door and knocked before pushing the door open. Sure enough, the young Santa was busy reading a child's letter and writing a response. Right next to him was Bryony who was also working on a letter. Peter rolled his eyes, he really had no idea how this clumsy boy became Santa. The guy was constantly tripping over his own two feet and accidently hurting others.

Peter actually had mixed feelings about Arthur. One was that he was jealous of Arthur for being Steve's biological brother, the second was anger for taking Steve's birth right and the third was a sort of empathy as Arthur was sometimes still made fun off and Peter knew too well how it felt to be the one being teased.

"Are you actually going to say or do something or are you just going to continue standing there like a complete weirdo?" Bryony asked in a playful tone while smirking down at him. Peter glared up at her before holding up the stack of letters to Arthur. "Steve said for me to give you these." Was all Peter said after taking his eyes off the female wrapping elf. How he had managed to stay sane after being trapped in a storage room with the crazy, annoying elf, he really didn't know. All he knew was that if he didn't leave soon, he would say something harsh.

Luckily Arthur spoke before Peter could, "Oh, thank you Peter! Tell Steve I said thanks." He said with a smile. Peter put another false smile, "Your welcome sir and I'll be sure to tell Steve." With that he turned and left the office.

Bryony stared at the door for a few seconds before going back to her work. "Well that was a first." Arthur stated out of nowhere. Bryony rose a brow in confusion, "What was a first?"

"Normally you two get in an argument whenever you see each other but now you didn't. I guess you two got everything out of your systems while you were locked in the room." He mused while leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms.

Bryony glanced down with a thoughtful look, "Actually we didn't really talk, we were more preoccupied on trying to get out but…" She left the sentence hanging. Arthur tilted his head, "But?"

The wrapping elf licked her lips before shaking her head, "Never mind, it's nothing." With that she looked back to the letter that she was holding. After a moment, Arthur went back to his own letter much to Bryony's relief. She was glad that he didn't push the matter, after all, how was she supposed to explain this weird attraction she was starting to feel for Peter?

'It's not an attraction! You're just nervous and upset about your arranged marriage and you're just using Peter as a reason to second guess your decision. He's the enemy you don't feel anything for him, you were locked up with him for a while and you're just a little confused. _Forget_ about him!' Her tough thoughts scolded.

Shaking her head Bryony complied and focused on her work. 'Maybe I should talk to the girls about this during lunch today.' She thought with a mental nod. Yes she would do that. Maybe her friends could help get her head straight.

**A/N: Sorry to keep y'all waiting but I got busy with signing up for my spring college classes and buying the books and what not. :p**

**Any who, as you noticed, this chapter follows mostly Peter and it tells you a little more about his past and such. Don't forget to leave a review and I'll try to have chapter 4 up ASAP!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews for the last chapter guys :D. Yes Peter's past is pretty sad and he does need some love and comfort and he will get it but not yet. Bryony's still in denial about her feelings for him and Peter still thinks that Bryony is just a crazy wrapping elf;). I know y'all are anxious to see some Peter-Bryony loving but that won't come till later chapters as this will be a long fic :D. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Arthur Christmas or any of the known characters, the only characters I own are my oc's which include, Sabrina, Tanya, Kathy, and Kevin. **

"Got any fives?"

"Nope, go fish."

"Do you have any nines?"

"Go fish."

"Do you have any threes?"

"Go fish."

Tardy and William went on back and forth with the card game while Bryony and the rest of the gang watched with mild interest. The groups wrapping elf had her chin resting in one hand while her elbow rested on the table. Although her eyes were locked on the two card players, they held a distant, far-away look as if she was in deep thought.

What was it about Peter lately that she couldn't get her mind off him? Ever since they got stuck in that forsaken room, her opinion about him had begun to change. It seemed as if the need to constantly get on his nerves was now gone. Such as earlier today, she only threw _one_ remark at him when he entered Arthur's office and after that…nothing. Maybe she was just getting used to seeing and working with Peter so often. Yes that had to be it, there was no other reason why she was no longer annoyed by him.

Perhaps she was just giving up on fighting with him. If that was the case, then hopefully he too would lose interest in arguing with her and they would have a decent working relationship.

"Are you in there Bryony?" Deborah asked while looking at her friend in concern. Bryony blinked before smiling, "Oh, yeah…I was just thinking about some stuff." She replied dismissively before taking a bite out of her chicken sandwich.

"What kind of stuff?" Tardy asked innocently as he picked up another card with a frown. He was loosing big time. Norah furrowed her brows, "Is it about Kevin and the wedding? You know you don't _have_ to marry that him. Just tell your parents what a jerk he is and that you could always marry someone else. Someone _better_." She reasoned.

Bryony shook her head. " Unfortunatly, my parents have never seen his rude, jerky side since he always acts like an angel in front of them. If I went to them saying those things to them, then they'll think I'm lying just so I could get out of the marriage. I already promised them I would go through with the marriage and give them some grandchildren, so I can't back out of that now." She paused to sip on her soda, "Besides, I wasn't thinking of that. I was thinking of something else."

"Of what? That's if you don't mind me asking?" Andrew questioned.

Biting her lip, Bryony responded, " Nothing really…I was just thinking about…Peter."

At this, all her friends looked over at her. " What did he do this time?" Kathy questioned while looking her friend over. Normally when Peter upset or angered Bryony, the first thing the wrapping elf would do was complain to her friends or rant on how the right hand elf was driving her crazy. This time seemed a bit different.

"Well he didn't do anything in particular, it's just that ever since the…mishap yesterday, things have been off between us. Like today I saw him when he dropped off some letters for Arthur and for once, we didn't have a petty argument!" Bryony explained with a thoughtful look before adding, "And last night, Kevin was making fun of Peter behind his back and for some reason, I decided to defend Peter. It was weird."

Sabrina smirked, "It would seem that _you_ are developing a crush on our little right hand elf, also known as Peter." She crossed her arms and her smirk grew when Bryony gave her a shocked look. "_Sabrina_! Don't even say stuff like that! There is _no way_ I have can have a crush on Peter. Besides, I'm engaged…I can't have crushes…especially on elves like Peter." Bryony stated while crossing her arms.

William shrugged while shuffling the cards, "Maybe this is just the start of a friendship. There's nothing wrong with having a male buddy as long as your just friends."

The wrapping elf nodded numbly. Normally she would agree that it was okay to have guy friends while married but after having a talk with Kevin earlier on in their 'relationship', and apparently he was the jealous type and didn't like Bryony hanging around so many men even if said men were just friends. After learning this, Bryony had confided to Norah about this upcoming issue and the paramedic elf insisted that Kevin wasn't only being jealous but he was also starting to show signs of possessiveness.

_If I were you, I'd call off the whole engagement thing with him cause it's only going to get worse._ Those words still rung in Bryony's mind and Norah was giving her a look after hearing William's comment which clearly said, 'Break it off while you still can!' but Bryony ignored it. While her and her friends weren't happy about the upcoming marriage, her parents were and it would be a big let down if she just walked up to them and said 'Yeah Kevin is a complete a-hole while your backs are turned. In fact, he's already trying to separate me from my friends. So…I guess what I'm saying is that I want to call off the wedding and possibly marry someone else. Someone that you two won't like and won't meet your high standards.' Mm-hm, that would go _so _well.

"Bryony?" Carlos asked while waving a hand in front of his friends face.

Blinking herself out of her thoughts for the second time that day and turned to her friends. "Sorry. What were you saying?"

Deborah adjusted her glasses, "We were asking if you were doing anything else later after work."

Bryony furrowed her brows in thought, "Well I've got to wrap some presents before I'm done for the day but after that I think I'll be free. Why do you ask?" she questioned with a small smile. "Well, we were all going to head out for a walk later on and we were wondering if you wanted to join us so that the whole gang went. So are you up for it?" Tardy asked with a grin.

"Sure, I'd love to. When are we going?" Bryony replied. She could use a nice walk out in the snow. Walks always helped calm her nerves and it would be a good chance to truly hang out with her friends without Kevin randomly walking up and interrupting. She just really hoped that her fiancé wouldn't try to stop her from being with her friends or worse, try to join them.

Andrew stood up while the rest of the group did the same, "We all get done at five so lets all meet up at the entrance around five thirty. Bring a flashlight just in case it gets dark." He instructed while they all dispersed and walked off to get back to work.

Bryony smiled as she headed off to where the gift wrappers worked. There was no way her good mood could be ruined now. Not by Kevin and not even by Peter.

Letting out a content sigh she opened the door to the large work station and headed over to her assigned spot. Pressing a button on near her, a toy landed on the table; Bryony then pulled out a roll of wrapping paper and began to wrap the gift.

"Pieces of tape, one." She counted before making a couple of folds.

"Two." Fold, fold.

"Bryony!" Damn, there goes her good mood. Not looking up, Bryony could hear Kevin sitting next to her and started his wrapping. "I missed you at lunch today, I assume you were with those friends of yours?" he mused lazily.

"Three. Yes we decided to eat in the lounge since the cafeteria is always packed." Bryony responded while working on another gift. 'One, two and three, done! Next!' She looked over the gift and pulled out some more wrapping.

Kevin sniffed while he wrapped his gift daintily, "Is that so?"

"Yes it is so." One, two, three, she grabbed another gift and did the same thing but faster. 'Lets see how many I can do today.' The female wrapper thought while finishing her wrapping. So far she had wrapped four gifts in the last five minutes. It was pretty good compared to the _one_ gift Kevin managed to wrap in said five minutes.

The male smirked, "Well, since you've spent most of your free time with your…_friends_," He sneered as the word, "I assume you wouldn't mind spending some time with your future husband." He stated while finally taking another gift and started working on it.

Bryony gave a small snort, "Actually since I haven't seen much of them since we became engaged, I decided that today was the day that I would spend as much time with them as I could before _you___stole me away again." She grabbed her now twelfth gift before continuing, "So in other words, I can't spend time talking with you today because I already have other plans with my friends."

Kevin pouted and went back to working . After a few moments of complete silence, he glanced at his fiancé, "So what are you planning on doing with your _dear_ friends?" He wondered out loud as Bryony worked on her twenty fifth gift. The female paused for a second before replying slowly, "We're just going to hang out for a while. Nothing much." She answered without stopping.

"Well then, I hope you enjoy yourself." He relied with sarcasm which caused Bryony to glare at him before she decided to keep quiet and hope that five thirty came around soon so she could get away from this jerk.

'Maybe Norah's right. Perhaps I should break off the wedding and find someone else to be with.' She thought but then mentally slapped herself. No, she really had to stop second guessing this whole marriage thing. It was completely obvious that marrying Kevin would bring her parents great pleasure and all Bryony wanted was to make her mother and father happy. And they honestly thought that she would be happy with a strong, handsome, elf like Kevin.

Bryony gave a small eye roll, 'If only they knew the real Kevin, but oh well.'

The rest of the work shift went without any other problems and Bryony was pleased when five'clock came around. As soon as her wrapping commander dismissed her and the other elves, she jumped up, cleaned her area and ran out of the room and made straight to her room to pick up her flashlight.

As soon as she had her light source, Bryony jogged out of her room and headed towards the main entrance, being careful to avoid the security cameras and dodging the elves that now littered the halls. It wasn't long till she found herself with her friends at the main entrance alone. No one really left the headquarters so the main entrance was left alone. As it was, the elves weren't allowed to leave the factory unless it was for work. After work hours, everyone was free to do as they pleased except wonder around outside especially when it was dark.

However, Bryony and her friends didn't really care and they would have their little 'rebel' moments and leave the safety of the headquarters and enjoy the fresh air. So far the sneaky elves had never gotten caught breaking the rules and had always managed to avoid being spotted by any humans (not that many came exploring the North pole) or mangled by any polar bears which were the number one danger to the tiny elves.

"You ready?" Andrew asked while unlocking the door and peaking out before pushing it open all the way once he saw the coast was clear.

Everyone nodded and whispered, "Ready."

With that, the nine elves quickly and quietly left the safety of the underground building and walked out while closing the door behind them. What none of them noticed was that Bryony had been followed by her fiancé who remained hidden around a corner and in the shadows.

"Oh Bryony my love, it seems as if you and your damn friends have been naughty." Kevin smirked before running off to find one of the Clause boys.

**A/N: And there's chapter 4, please review and chapter five is coming soon:D**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable characters from Arthur Christmas. The only thing I own are my oc's which at the moment include Kevin, Tanya, Sabrina, and Kathy.**

Blast! One would think it would be easy to find a couple humans yet after searching for about half an hour or so and not being able to find neither Arthur nor Steve, he was pretty much frustrated. He would have tried calling them on their HOHO's but the Claus family normally blocked out almost all of the elves from calling once the day ended. The only ones that could get ahold of them were the elves with extremely high ranks. Some of those elves included, Bryony, Andrew or William, whom were all out and about. The best bet would probably have to be Peter, the teachers' pet.

Kevin shuddered at the thought of having to speak to the right hand elf. He wanted nothing to do with that little weirdo but if it meant getting Bryony and her friends caught then he would do it. Who knows, perhaps she would not be allowed to see her 'friends' and it would be easier to keep her on track when it came to the wedding plans.

With a nod, Kevin walked off to find Peter. As he weaved through the crowd, he mused on the group of friends his fiancé was always hanging around with. Ever since Bryony had told them about her engagement to him, they had been a problem. Those friends of hers were always trying to convince her to call off their wedding and such.

The wrapping elf shook his head; those elves were nothing but an obstacle between him and Bryony. 'Hopefully this obstacle can be removed tonight and hopefully now things can go smoothly as long as no one else gets in my way.' He mused and then grinned when he spotted Peter who was walking as fast as he could to get away from Tanya.

'I really don't know why he's avoiding her. It's a miracle that she's even after him so he might as well take advantage of it since she's the best and probably _only_ girl that he's ever going to get!' Kevin thought while approaching Peter.

"Peter!" He called out.

The right hand elf stopped in his tracks and turned to Kevin. "Yes?"

"Do you by any chance know where Steve or Arthur are?" Kevin questioned while putting his hands behind his back.

Peter furrowed his brow suspiciously, "They're getting ready for dinner with their family. Why do you ask?" Kevin pursed his lips. Damn! Guess he would have to let _Peter_ deal with it. He then gave his trademark smirk when Tanya came up behind Peter and wrapped her arms around him while he practically groaned in misery. Realizing that Peter was still waiting for a reply, the wrapping elf continued, "Oh well it's just that I'd tell him that I saw a group of elves walk of the main entrance." He stated in a calm manner as if it weren't a big deal.

Peter practically dropped his phone in shock, "What? Who?" He demanded while shrugging off Tanya. The female field elf was always so touch feely and it drove him crazy every time she clung on to him. Unfortunately now wasn't the time to complain about Tanya, he had bigger fish to fry. "Who were the ones that went out?" He questioned more forcefully.

"Oh mind your temper Peter, you wouldn't want to lose your cool in front of all these elves." Kevin stated in a bored tone yet held an amused look. Peter just glowered at the wrapping elf who sighed with an eye roll, "Very well. I just saw my fiancé Bryony and her group of friends head out for a stroll around the pole. I _was _going to alert Steve or our new Santa but since they're busy, I guess _you'll_ have to deal with them." Kevin stated with an amused look.

Peter was silent for a few seconds before he furrowed his brow angrily, "They what!" He hissed, his ears were pointing slightly back like an angry dog. "Are you sure they left?" He continued while Kevin nodded, "Oh yes, I guess they felt they are above the rules and decided to go out for a bit of fresh air."

"Damn it Bryony." Peter muttered under his breath while looking at his HOHO. The obvious this to do would be to contact Steve…or Arthur. But then again, this didn't seem like too big of a problem, if they didn't go too far then it wouldn't be too difficult to find them and he could deal with them himself. If he couldn't find the trouble making group, _then_ he would contact Steve. Hesitating for a moment, he finally looked back at Kevin, "Alright fine I'll take care of it, but you're coming with me. Knowing Bryony she won't listen to me so maybe if you're there, you could talk some sense into her." With that the right hand elf started towards the main entrance with Kevin close behind.

Peter did a double take when Tanya jogged up next to him, "And where do you think _you're_ going?" Peter questioned while his unwanted admirer pushed short strand of hair behind one of her ears. Tanya gave him a look as if that was the dumbest question in the world, "I'm going with you silly!" She replied while trying to hold Peter's hand, only for him to pull it away.

"I don't think so." Peter deadpanned.

Tanya smirked, "Oh yes I am, who knows, you might need some more help bringing those delinquents back in." she reasoned.

Giving a frustrated sigh, Peter responded, "That's why I'm bringing Kevin along." Tanya just shrugged, "The more the merrier." Peter pursed his lips in annoyance but decided to keep quiet and let the elf have her way for once and continued towards the entrance.

Kevin walked to Peter's other side, "I assume that there will be some sort of punishment for them?" He stated in a bit of a hopeful tone. Peter looked over at him, "Yes you can be assured that they will receive some sort of punishment."

Perfect. "I suggest that perhaps the group should not be able to 'hang out' with each other. It's obvious that if they are allowed to stay together, they might…will, continue this disobedient behavior." Kevin suggested.

"That seems a bit harsh." Peter mused truthfully. After hearing this proposal, Peter really thought that was going a bit extreme. At the moment, he wasn't sure what their punishment would be but he really doubt that he would force them to stop seeing each other.

Of course Tanya just _had _to add her own two cents into the conversation, "Well _I _think that's a perfect punishment, lets' see it they try to sneak out again when they're not all together." She stuck her nose up in a superior way.

Peter just shook his head while rolling his eyes.

Somewhere outside the North Pole headquarters

Bryony smiled as she enjoyed the fresh, yet extremely cold air. This was just what she needed after what's been happening for the past couple of days, a nice walk in the moonlight should help her relax and get her head straight. 'Soooo many weird thoughts and feelings these past couple of days.' She thought to herself.

First off, there was Peter who was the main source of well…everything. Since yesterday she's been having these odd feelings towards the assistant elf and her soft, lovey side keeps putting weird thoughts into her mind. Then of course there was what Sabrina said earlier about her having a 'crush' on Peter! 'That's just crazy talk!' Bryony reasoned while she watched what looked like a playful shoving match between Andrew and Carlos. 'I can't have a crush on Peter, I just can't!' She laughed as Andrew pushed Carlos a little too hard and the elf ended up bumping into William; the S-1 helmsman elf gave Carlos a shove which sent the elf stumbling back to Andrew, where the two lost their balance and landed in the snow.

"Elf down." Carlos whimpered from his spot.

Andrew and Carlos quickly got up before tackling William to the ground and started to play wrestle with him. "Tardy I need back up!" The helmsman elf called out. Tardy nodded before joining in with the small fight. The five female elves laughed as they watched the boys tussle. "You four are such little boys!" Kathy stated while covering her giggle with a hand.

"Not too rough you guys." Norah warned while crossing her arms and smirking as Andrew pinned down William.

"Norah call your boyfriend off!" the pinned elf pleaded as he struggled but gave up when he realized that his captor was too strong. Norah rolled her eyes, "Andrew love, please get off of William." Andrew looked up at his girlfriend and smiled before releasing his friend. With that, the rest of the boys got up and dusted the snow off their clothes.

Deborah cleared her throat, "Shall we continue?" she questioned once the laughter had subsided. "Yeah let's get going before it gets too late." Andrew agreed while the elves continued their walk. Now that all the excitement was over, Bryony could get back to her thoughts.

While her feelings about Peter was a mystery, her thoughts about Kevin and the marriage were growing stronger every day. When she first agreed to marry Kevin, she didn't really have a reason to second guess herself since she didn't have any other love interest. Now that Peter was somewhat in the picture, things seemed a bit complicated and she was quickly finding herself wishing that she didn't have to marry Kevin. What was it about the right hand elf that was making her feel this way? 'Maybe it's the fact that you _do_ sort of like Peter.' Her thoughts stated out of nowhere.

'No way that's even possible!' Her other side argued back while she shook her head softly. 'It could be.' The first voice taunted. Before her other 'voice' could reply, a real voice that she _really_ didn't want to hear, sounded behind her and her friends.

"Enjoying your moonlight walk?"

Having not expected anyone else out, the group jumped, shared a nervous look with each other before slowly turned to face the elf with the familiar voice. Instantly, all their ears dropped when they saw none other than Peter standing with his arms crossed and looking pissed. Behind him stood Kevin, much to Bryony's surprise, and Tanya which wasn't much of a shock.

Bryony licked her lips nervously, "Peter, what are you doing out here?"

Peter scowled, "I could ask _you_ and your friends the same thing!" he snapped back.

"We were just going for a quick walk." The wrapping elf explained while ringing her hands together. Peter stepped forward, "Yes I could see that. Now tell me, what the hell did you all think you were doing?" He demanded. Kevin stepped forward, "Now Peter, don't get upset with Bryony. We both know how she loves to obey rules, her friends however…I'm not too sure about them. If anything, I think it was their idea for them to come on this little walk trip." He reasoned much to Bryony's displeasure. Did her fiancé just try to pass the blame on her friends?

"Don't try to blame this on my friends, this was all my idea." Bryony defended while putting her hands on her hips. Andrew was about to say that it was his idea but Bryony gave him a look that said, 'let me take the blame for this one' and the special Santa unit elf reluctantly stayed quiet. Peter rubbed his temple, "Right now I don't care _whose_ fault or idea this is, right now everyone needs to get back to the headquarters, now!" With that the assistant turned and walked back with Tanya trailing behind him but not before giving Bryony a snooty smirk.

Kevin walked next to his fiancé who frowned at him, "Why did you say that?" She whispered angrily. Kevin glanced down at his future wife, "All will be explained once we get back." Was all he said in a note of finality. Bryony pursed her lips but dropped the subject. It would seem that Bryony now had another reason to call off the wedding.

**A/N: Yay chapter five! Sorry for the wait but college already starting to kick off. This semester I'm taking three literature classes and a college algebra math class and it's a lot of work :P. Any who, I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter:D **

**A quick note about Peter and the ear thing he did when he was angry: I kind of figured that elves ears are flexible due to their long length so an elf can easily shift his/her ears depending on their mood. Their ears go back if their angry, or perk up if their happy, or droop down slightly if their sad, etc. **

**Anyway, I'll have chapter 6 up ASAP. ;)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own any recognizable characters from Arthur Christmas, they belong to Aardman. The only thing I own are my oc's which at this point include, Kevin, Tanya, Kathy and Sabrina. :-)**

The trek back to the headquarters was quick and uneventful. Bryony held her arms across her chest the whole way. This was just so typical, the minuet she started having fun and enjoying herself, something or someone would always ruin it! In this case it was Peter, as usual, yet despite the fact that he was the one to cut the fun walk short, Bryony felt angrier at Kevin. Knowing him, Bryony wouldn't doubt that he was the reason Peter found out about her and her friends sneaking out.

Then to top it all off, Kevin actually had the nerve to try to get her friends in trouble. Sure it _was_ their idea, specifically Andrew's, but the last thing she wanted was her buddies to get in more trouble than they were already in which was why she decided to take the blame.

'Oh wait till Steve and Arthur find out about this!' Bryony thought miserably. And find out they would since Peter would no doubt tell Steve first thing in the morning. 'Unless he's already text him…oh I'm soooo dead!' The wrapping elf let out a soft groan which caused Kevin to look over at her.

"What's wrong my love?" he asked innocently. Bryony shot him an icy look,

"You have no right to call me that right now!" She snapped with narrowed eyes.

Kevin furrowed his brow, "You did this to yourselves-"

"Well talk about this later, right now I don't want to talk to you." Bryony hissed while looking straight ahead as a signal that the conversation was over. Kevin frowned at his fiancé, that attitude would be the first thing to go once they were married. For now he would let her have her way and throw her small tempers.

He then cast his glance ahead and caught sight of Tanya who was walking besides Peter. The elf tart had her hands on one of the elf's arms as they walked, the male's arm just dangled loosely in her grip. Kevin wrinkled his nose, if he was in Peter's position, he'd have spent the night with Tanya already instead of waiting for who knows what. He was even surprised that Tanya was spending so much time trying to seduce Peter when the male wasn't even giving into the temptation.

'If only Bryony were more like her…more beautiful, sexy, more feminine, submissive, and longer hair. While it was normal for female elves to have their hair cut short, Tanya kept her hair a bit longer than the rest. Bryony on the other hand, kept her hair extremely short with a small blonde mohawk; that wasn't exactly his favorite hair style. Then to top things off, she had that pierced brow. 'Thing number two that was going to go.' Kevin nodded.

The sight of the Santa headquarters entrance shook him from his thoughts. Peter pulled his arm away from Tanya before walking up to the door. He gave it a tug and was relieved to see that no one had come by to lock it.

"Right. Everybody in!" Peter demanded while holding the door open and pointing his finger inside. The elves filed in while Peter followed behind while closing and locking the door. He looked around at the elves till his eyes finally stayed on Bryony, "Well since _you all_ thought it was a good idea to make an _unauthorized_ trip outside, I think it should be obvious that a punishment is in order." He started.

Kevin looked at Peter with a hopeful glance before the assistant continued, "Kevin here thought it would be a good idea to keep you separate for a while in order to rid yourselves of any temptation of wondering out again." The group all glared at Kevin who shrugged.

"_But_, even I think that's a bit harsh so I'll let you go with a warning and a minor punishment." Everyone looked at him with relief, or in the case of Kevin and Tanya, surprise. Peter pointed at the floor, "Drop and give me twenty!" He commanded. Bryony and her friends dropped down and began doing their push-ups in unison with Andrew counting them out loud.

Down, up "One sir!"

Down, up "Two sir!"

Down, up "Three sir!"

Down, up "Four sir!"

Down, up "Five sir!" This went on till they finally reached twenty. "Permission to get up sir." Andrew panted. Peter nodded, "Permission granted."

The group stood up tiredly. "You can all retire to your rooms now, and _don't_ try sneaking off again!" Peter stated while the elves nodded and started to disperse. Tanya frowned at the fact that the group didn't get a harsher punishment; Kevin was disappointed that the group didn't get the punishment he hoped they would get.

"Tanya you have to go back to your room as well." Peter deadpanned. Tanya gave a huff before heading off to her room. Bryony was the last of group and was about to leave when Peter stopped her, "Bryony I need to have a word with you." Kevin made to wait for her when Peter glanced at him, "Alone." He added.

Kevin glared at Peter, before leaving the two elves alone. Once the wrapping elf was gone, Peter turned to the female elf, "Since it was 'your' idea to go out, I want you to drop down and give me another twenty."

"Are you serious?" Bryony asked with a skeptical look. When she saw that the assistant wasn't kidding, she dropped down and began her second set of push-ups.

Down, up "One sir!"

Down, up "Two sir!"

Down, up "Three sir!"

Down, up "Four sir!"

Down, up "Five sir!" she could feel her arms shake slightly, she was still a bit tired from the last set so doing this again was really taking the strength out of her.

Down, up "Six sir!" Bryony panted, the elf had a hard time pushing herself back up after going down. Peter sighed, "Alright that's enough, forget the rest and get up already." He couldn't stand watching another elf, especially a female, struggle the way Bryony was.

Said female looked up at the male, not moving from her position. Peter motioned his hands up, "You heard me. On your feet soldier. I think you've received enough punishment for tonight." Bryony blinked before she slowly stood up, "Thank you…sir." She mumbled. The two elves stood a while in awkward silence, "Does Steve and Arthur know about…?" She started to ask but left the question open. Peter raised a brow, "About you and your posse leaving headquarters without permission? No, but they will in the morning." He replied as he started to walk to the elf barracks.

Bryony moved to walk next to him while rubbing her arm. "So…how did you find out about us leaving?" She asked in an attempt to break the strong silence that had overcome the two. Peter glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Your fiancé alerted me of the situation. Quiet an elf he is, he even suggested an odd punishment." Peter replied while loosening his tie; there weren't any more elves out wondering the halls so there wasn't any harm in slacking his uniform. Bryony rose a brow, "What did Kevin suggest?"

"He thought it would be best if I ordered you to stop seeing your friends or something like that." He said while Bryony's face twisted into anger before the assistant elf continued, "Of course even _I _thought that was a bit harsh and unnecessary so I decided not to give that punishment." He smirked at her, "Besides, it's not like you would have listened to me anyway, knowing you, you would have found a way to get back with your friends."

Bryony nodded while licking her lips, "Well thanks for that…I guess." She said.

A chuckle from Peter caused her to look up at him, "That future husband of yours…you really know how to pick them."

The Scottish elf gave a small snort, "_I _didn't pick him. My parents did, I just agreed to marry him." She replied with a scowl. Peter tilted his head, "An arranged marriage?"

"Basically. Apparently Kevin has a good status, rank, and good breeding which is great for my parents cause they're already anxious to have some grandchildren." Bryony stated with a shrug of her shoulders. The assistant gave a short 'Hm' before adding his own two cents,

"Do you even _like_ him?" He questioned while staring straight ahead. Bryony was quiet for a moment before slowly admitting, "No not at all, but if it makes my parents happy…then I'll go through with it."

The two elves were thrown in silence once more before Bryony decided to break it for the second time, "So what's going on between you and Tanya?"

Peter frowned, "Nothing's going on between us. There's not even an 'us'. She just _thinks_ we're together but believe me it's all in her head."

"Well that's good, cause you don't look the type to go out with that tart." The female joked while the male rolled his eyes. "That and I don't have a taste in women who've slept with who knows how many other male elves." Peter retorted. Bryony smiled, "I think we may have found something else we agree on. I don't know what I'd do if I found out Kevin's been sleeping around other women. Then again, it would give me another reason to call off the wedding since I prefer to be my husband's first just like he would be mine."

Peter turned his head to Bryony, "You're a virgin?"

Bryony frowned up at him, "Yes…why?" She asked with narrowed eyes while Peter shrugged,

"Oh no reason, you just don't look like it-Ow!" The elf grabbed his shoulder after Bryony gave it a good punch.

The wrapping elf put her hands on her hips and glared at the whining elf, "Well what about _you_? How many women have _you_ been with?" She demanded. Peter glared back, "None okay?"

Bryony smirked, "Well I'm not surprised."

"You're one to talk!" Peter snapped back in which Bryony retorted, "I'm a virgin because I chose not to sleep with anyone yet, you wouldn't believe how many guys try to make a move on me so I can share a bed with them for the night. _You_ however don't have a choice; I've never seen you with any other woman besides Tanya."

Peter pursed his lips before shaking his head and looking straight ahead. Automatically, Bryony regretted saying those things, "Look Peter…I'm sorry alright. I shouldn't have said those things and I apologize."

"No I'm sorry, as much as I hate to admit it, I deserved that for starting the whole thing. Let's just forget it." He said without looking at her. Bryony sighed and decided to stay quiet for the time being. It wasn't long till Peter spoke out, "What were you all doing outside anyways?" He questioned while changing the subject.

Bryony blinked, "Nothing, we just wanted to go for a walk and get some fresh air. And I needed to think of some things."

"What kind of things?"

This caused the wrapping elf's mind to freeze, what could she tell him? 'Oh nothing much, just thinking that I might have a crush on you.' Yeah that would go _really_ well. "Just about Kevin and the wedding." She replied while scratching her head.

"Oh." Peter loosened his tie a bit more before stopping. "Well, here we are." He added while turning to Bryony. The female elf looked around and realized that they were standing in front of her room. During their endurable conversation, she hadn't noticed that they were walking to her sleeping quarters.

"You escorted me to my room?" She asked with a tilted head. Peter nodded, "I thought you could use some company instead of walking down these halls by yourself. That and I wanted to make sure you didn't go wondering off somewhere else."

A mixture of flattery and annoyance ran through Bryony at the statement. "Oh, well thank you for the company but who's going to keep _you_ company while you walk to _your_ room?" She asked with a playful smirk which was returned by Peter, "Oh don't worry about me Miss Shelfley, I'll be fine on my own."

He was about to leave when his eyes landed on the small mail box hanging on the wall next to the door. "I think your new HOHO is in." He announced while taking the small box and handing it to the new owner. Bryony grabbed the end that was held out to her when one of her fingers brushed against one of Peters'.

The feeling caused her to pause and look up at Peter who was looking at her expectantly. Then to make things even more awkward, the moment Bryony's blue-grey eyes met Peter's brown orbs, the two elves froze.

Peter had never really noticed how pretty Bryony's eyes were till now. 'Must be the lighting in this hall.' He reasoned before swallowing the small lump in his throat. Bryony meanwhile was trying to slow down her heart which was pounding with excitement. The excitement grew when Peter brought his free hand to her cheek and gently ran a finger down her cheek, causing her eyes to flutter softly.

This only lasted a split second before the two elves snapped out of it and they both looked away while Peter muttered a soft, "Sorry."

He then held his hand with the package out once more and Bryony quickly took it and uttered a small "Thank you." While staring at the ground, her naturally pink cheeks were now burning red. Finally Peter cleared his throat, "Well, good-night Bryony." With that he turned and walked down the hall towards his own room.

"Good night Peter!" The wrapping elf called out softly before tapping her code on the device to unlock her door and entering her room. As soon as she closed and locked the door, she turned and placed a hand where Peter had touched her just moments earlier. She wasn't sure _why_ he did that but in a way, she was glad he did. Kevin never really touched her like that, at least not in the gentle way like Peter did. The only time Kevin would stroke her cheek was when he was trying to seduce her, only for her to reject him stating that she wanted to wait till they were married before they did anything.

In short, Kevin's touches made her feel uncomfortable and were very much unwanted whereas Peter's touch made her feel at ease and left her wanting more.

Bryony groaned in frustration, "Damn it Peter, what are you doing to me?"

Meanwhile

Peter arrived at his room and sighed as he punched in the code to unlock his door. His mind was in overdrive, wondering why on Earth he stroked Bryony's cheek. 'Talk about random.' He thought as he walked into his room while taking his red tie off completely and tossing it onto the small table in his room. The elf proceeded to change into his sleeping cloths, brush his teeth and then throw himself stomach down, onto his bed. Rolling onto his back, Peter put his hands behind his head and stared up at the ceiling.

Something in the back of his mind was telling him that things with Bryony were about to get _pretty_ interesting. Then of course there was another voice in the back of his mind telling him to watch out for Kevin and Tanya. In all, he and Bryony were in for a bumpy ride.

**A/N: Hurray for chapter 6! :D **

**Yes Peter, you and Bryony are in for a really bumpy ride;)**

**Chapter 7 coming soon!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I'm soooooo sorry about the late update but college is really piling on the homework:P, anywho, here's the next chapter, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Arthur Christmas.**

The following day

Bryony ran a hand over her short black and yellow hair as she walked towards the 'public' showers located in the area near her room. She was really looking forward to a nice hot shower after everything that's been going on lately. That and she had to get ready to meet up with her parents and unfortunately, meet up with Kevin again.

The wrapping elf frowned, she was still upset at her fiancé and she had no doubt that the first thing he was going to do when he saw her parents was tell them how she and her friends broke one of the rules and snuck out last night. Then the three would all talk about how her friends are a bad influence on her and then that would lead to her looks and attitude and gods the list would just go on and on. She really hated being in the same room as her parents and Kevin.

'They make Peter look like a walk in the park.' Bryony thought before pausing. Peter…that cheek stroke he did to her last night came rushing back and the elf found herself touching her cheek. She smiled at the memory but then quickly shook her head, there was no way that touch meant anything. They just got a little too friendly last night and Peter had over done it and stroked her. That's all it was.

It had to be.

Bryony pursed her lips in thought, 'I wonder if he's even told Arthur and Steve about me and my friends leaving last night.' She thought nervously and opened the door to the ladies shower room.

Upon entering, she gave a content sigh as she felt the warm steam from the water meet her skin. Walking to another door, she entered a second room where a few long tables were located with various bags and cloths on top of them. Nearby were several dressing rooms for the female elves to change.

Bryony strolled over to one of the quarters and began to change from her sleeping cloths to her shower bikini that the female elves wore while washing. She carefully adjusted her royal blue top and bottom before stepping out onto the cemented floor that was bore a slightly rough surface to prevent anyone from slipping.

She then walked to the large shower room and selected one of the shower heads. The wrapper elf gave a tuneless hum as she turned on and adjusted the water to a comfortably hot temperature before stepping into the water.

"Oh that's so much better." Bryony mumbled as she moved her hands over her hair, making sure it was soaked. The wrapper reached over and pushed one of the buttons on the wall that were labeled 'Shampoo', 'Conditioner', and 'Body Wash'. A small pool of shampoo gathered on her tiny palm before she brought it up and lathered her short hair and then proceeded to wash it off, she repeated the process with the conditioner.

Bryony grabbed her light blue body sponge, poured some soap onto it and then gently scrubbed herself clean. As soon as the soap was all off, she picked up her razor and proceeded to shave her legs and underarms.

"There, all done!" Bryony sighed while turning off the water and walking back to the dressing room. It didn't take long for her to fix her hair to its normal Mohawk style and change into her cloths. Today was Saturday and she, as well as all the other elves, had the weekends off and were free to wear anything that wasn't their uniforms. Today Bryony decided to wear a black t-shirt that read 'System of a Down' in front, dark blue jeans and some black sneakers.

"Well look who it is."

The annoying voice caused Bryony to flinch slightly before turning to the source. Sure enough, Tanya stood behind the wrapping elf with her hands on her hips and narrowed eyes. "What do you want this time Tanya." Bryony droned while gathering her things. Tanya flicked her hair before replying, "I just wanted to know what went on between you and Peter after I left."

'Oh here we go again.' Bryony groaned inwardly as she rolled her eyes. "Once again, _nothing_ happened. He just talked and he walked me to my room in which he left as soon as I got in my room."

The female field elf frowned and eyed the wrapper suspiciously. "I'm not sure whether or not to believe that, but I'm telling you now; stay away from Peter. He's mine." Tanya hissed threateningly. Bryony furrowed her brow, "First off, I don't take well to threats. Second, by what Peter told me last night, you don't have a chance with him." The wrapping she elf retorted while her rival huffed.

"It'll take some extra work but he'll warm up to the idea." Tanya mused while moving in front of the large mirror and fixing her hair, "In the meantime," She cast a devious glance at Bryony who shifted on her feet, "Are any of those guy friends of yours available?"

Bryony stiffened, "Why do you want to know? Why do you even care, I thought you were after Peter." She snapped defensively. The long hair girl smirked, "Like I said, Peter requires extra time and work. Unfortunately, because of him, I haven't had a single lay in a while and I'm ready for a quick satisfaction before I have him. Now if your guy 'just friends' are available, then you and those other girls you hang with wouldn't mind if I take one of them for a spin. I think Andrew would do."

Never in her life had Bryony been so furious! 'That little tart!' She fumed. How dare this…this…_whore_ make such a request! "No none of them are available, especially not Andrew. In fact, Andrew is paired up with Norah." She replied as patiently as she could.

Tanya frowned in thought, "How about that Carlos?"

"He's paired up with Sabrina."

"Tardy?"

"Paired up with Deborah."

"Well then how about William?"

"Paired up with Kathy."

Tanya looked beyond frustrated much to Bryony's pleasure, however, her pleasure was short lived when Tanya smirked again, "So they found 'true love' while _you're_ stuck in an arranged marriage with an elf you don't like. Pity." She said while observing her fingernails. Bryony clenched her little fists, "That's none of your business!"

The field elf laughed, "I _make_ everything my business. Now If you'll excuse me, I've got men to seduce before I get back to work on Peter." She walked to the door and made to leave when she quickly stuck her head back in the room, "Bye Bryony!" She said in an annoying, childish way while wiggling her fingers in the bye motion before leaving completely.

Bryony finished gathering her things before storming out of the shower rooms. 'I hate her, I hate her, _I hate her!_' She fumed as she headed to her room to drop off her bag. A small beep from her HOHO alerted her of a text message. Reaching into her bag, she pulled out the phone and read the message that she had received from…Kevin.

_Where are you? You're late!_

Bryony blinked at the text before checking the time and gasped. That little 'chat' with Tanya had taken up more time than she thought and she was now ten minutes late to the meeting with her parents and Kevin.

"Oh boy." She breathed as she broke out into a run to her room. Upon reaching it, she quickly punched in the code and just threw the bag into the room before locking it and running off to the room her parents shared. It would still take her a while to get there since her mother and father lived in a room that was at a far end of the headquarters.

'Great now my mum and dad have a whole list of things to nag about today, starting with my tardiness!' She panted as she continued to run down the many, _many_ halls.

**A/N: Yeah as you can see, Peter didn't make an appearance in this chapter but he will in the next one. Also in chapter 8 I'll be introducing Bryony's parents as well as Peter's mother, so the next one should be pretty long:).**


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Hello again, well here's chapter 8 .:) I decided to do the bold location/time thing as some other Arthur Christmas fanfic writers have been doing. I found out that it helps make the time and setting change a bit clearer. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Arthur Christmas. It belongs to Aardman and I make no money off this story.

**North Pole Headquarters, 10:30 am. (Bryony is now 30 minutes late)**

'Almost there!' Bryony thought as she jogged down the final hall that led to her parents' room. It had taken her a while to arrive since more elves had emerged and started roaming the halls, which slowed down Bryony. Then of course she had stopped a couple of times to catch her breath.

Finally she stopped in front of the door that read, 'Mr. and Mrs. Shelfley' and knocked. The door opened to reveal an older female elf with chin length, black hair who was scowling at the younger female.

"Well _there_ you are! Where have you been? Its ten thirty and we've yet to discuss _any_ of the wedding plans!" The older woman snapped while pulling Bryony in by the arm. The wrapper elf stumbled slightly but quickly regained her footing. "Hello to you too mother." She mumbled while rubbing her sore arm after her mother let her go. Looking around the room she saw her father sitting in one of the chairs, his dirty blonde hair was neatly combed back as usual. Next to him sat none other than Kevin, who was smirking at her.

"Kevin tells me that you and those hooligan friends of yours snuck out for a 'walk' last night." Her father said with a disapproving frown.

Bryony rolled her eyes and made to sit in the chair next to the one her mother was sitting in.

"No, no! Your father will sit here and you'll sit next to your future husband. Brasil move so Bryony can sit there." Mrs. Shelfley instructed while ushering her daughter to the other seat. Mr. Shelfley got up and moved next to his wife. Once everyone was where they were supposed to sit, the older female smiled. "There, much better."

Bryony couldn't disagree more; she had to fight the urge to scoot away from Kevin. A loud thump caught her attention and she looked at the small table that was in the middle of the group. On the table was a thick binder that held many papers. "While you were out doing who knows what, your mother was here working on the wedding arrangements, weren't you Enya?" Mr. Shelfley stated while looking at his wife.

Mrs. Shelfley nodded, "Yes, while we already have the date set, which as you remember is this May, we still have many things to discuss." She said while flipping open the binder.

"What kind of things?" Bryony asked.

"Well, we need to choose the color theme, revise the guest list, find a photographer for the wedding and the reception, shop for a wedding gown, choose the bridesmaids and the list just goes on!" Mrs. Enya replied while looking down the list.

Her daughter pinched the bridge of her nose, "Why couldn't we just have a small wedding, like the ones where all you need is a few witnesses?" She complained.

Mr. Shelfley shook his head, "Because that's basically getting hitched and no daughter of mine will be 'hitched'." He said in what sounded like a snooty tone. "Only the best for _my_ future wife." Kevin said as he grabbed Bryony's hand. Said future wife sighed in defeat. There was no point in starting another argument with her parents. Her mother's excited voice broke the short silence, "Oh and we've also got to discuss the baby arrangements!"

Bryony's ears dropped slightly, "What?"

"You know, for when you two start have your little ones." Mrs. Shelfley explained while waving her hand and giving her daughter a 'duh' look. If she had been drinking anything, Bryony was sure that the drink would have flown from her mouth. "Isn't it a bit early to be thinking about kids?" She asked shocked. Bryony loved kids and all but planning for a baby before she was even married was beyond rushing things.

Her mother rolled her eyes, "We're just planning ahead dear." She said while taking the lid off the small box that was next to the large binder. Mrs. Shelfley reached in and brought out two tiny, pink baby booties. She held them out to her daughter, "These used to be yours when you were just a wee little lass."

Bryony reached out and gently took them from her mother and held them in her palm. "They're so tiny." She mused in awe. Her father nodded, "You were only four and a half inches long." He replied while leaning back in his chair. A knock on the door caught everyone's attention and her mother rose a brow before getting up and walking to the door, "Now who can that be?" She mused while opening it.

"Oh it's you." Mrs. Shelfley mumbled with a frown when she saw who was at the door.

"Is that anyway way to greet your big brother Enya?" The familiar thick Scottish accent caught Bryony's attention and she perked up with a big grin. She'd recognize that voice anywhere,

"Uncle Elliot!" She called out while leaning to the side in an attempt to see her uncle at the door. A Glengarry hatted head peaked around her mother and Bryony saw her uncle grin at her, "Why Bryony, I figured- excuse me dear sister- that you'd be here what with all the wedding planning and what not." Elliot Bane said while walking past Mrs. Shelfley, who glared at her brother. Bryony got up and hugged her uncle who hugged her back.

After they let go, Elliot nodded to Mr. Shelfley and Kevin before grabbing the last chair and pulled it up so that it was in between Bryony, and Kevin's seats. He sat down and adjusted his kilt then motioned for his niece to sit as well. All the while, he received cold glares from the other three occupants in which he ignored them all. Elliot glanced at Bryony before taking off his Glengarry hat and placing it on the wrapper elf's head. "That hat suits you lass." He said with a smile. Bryony beamed up at him, unlike her parents and fiancé, she adored her uncle.

"Now, what were ye all talking about?" The thick accented elf questioned while reaching into his sporran.

"Not in here and _not_ in front of Bryony!" Mrs. Shelfley snapped when her brother pulled out his pipe and she added, "It's bad enough that she made her hair look like that and got that thing on her brow, I don't want to her pick up smoking as well!"

Elliot sighed and pushed his pipe back into his small bag, "Alright, alright."

Mr. Shelfley cleared his throat, "Perhaps we should get back on topic. To answer your question Elliot, as you might have guessed, we were just discussing some wedding plans." His brother in law looked down at the large binder, "_All that_?" Elliot asked while leaning forward and flipping through the pages.

A beeping sound came from Kevin's pocket and the youngest male elf fished out his HOHO and stared at the screen. "I'm sorry to say this everybody, but I must meet up with a…acquaintance. Perhaps we can reschedule this meeting?" He asked while getting up from his chair.

Bryony looked pleased while her parents looked disappointed, "I suppose that would be alright." Her mother said while closing the binder. Kevin nodded, "My apologies once again, I'll see myself out." With that, he strolled to the door and left the room. Mr. Shelfley looked at his daughter, "I guess you're free to leave as well Bryony, your mum and I will message you once we set a date and don't be late next time." He said while rubbing his eyes.

Bryony stood up and took off the Glengarry hat and held it to her uncle who put up a hand and shook his head, "No, _you_ keep it lass." He said while standing as well. Bryony tilted her head, "Are you sure uncle?"

"Yes, I've got a few others in my room. That one's my favorite but it looks better on you." He said while patting the young female elf's shoulder. "Now off with you, I've got to talk to your mother." He instructed while walking Bryony to the door, "Enya, I think we should talk in my room. I'm itching to use my pipe." He called as he left the room with Bryony.

Mrs. Shelfley stood up and followed her brother and daughter out the door. As soon as all three were out, Elliot nudged her niece in one direction, "You go on and chat with your friends and have fun. Your mum and I need to have a little chat of our own." He before turning in the opposite direction and walking to his room, which was only six doors away from his sister and brother in law.

Bryony pretended to walk in the opposite direction, but as soon as she heard her uncle's door close behind him, she turned and ran to his room and quietly pressed her ear on the door.

**Inside Elliot's room, 11:00 am**

Elliot pulled out two chairs, sat down in one and motioned his sister to sit in the other. Once she was sitting, Elliot pulled out his pipe and his match box and lit it. Mrs. Shelfley shook her head as she watched her older sibling take a couple of short puffs. "That habit of yours is bad for you what with your heart problem and all." She scolded.

"I'm fine Enya. Besides, I didn't bring you here to hear you nag my health decisions. I brought you here to talk about this marriage thing yer forcing on Bryony." He puffed on his pipe, "It ain't fare to have the poor lass marry a man she clearly doesn't love or even like for that matter!" He narrowed his eyes at Enya.

Mrs. Shelfley rubbed her eyes tiredly, "You don't understand Elliot, Kevin will be a good husband for Bryony, he has a high social status, a high rank, good breeding-"

"That's not all you're supposed to look for in a man Enya!" Elliot interrupted harshly, "A lass like Bryony needs to find a man on her own. She needs to find a man who will love and take care of her and help support her children. A man that will keep her happy and make her laugh, a man who will be there for her and support her ideas. She needs someone with a shoulder to cry on when she's upset and comfort her when she's sad! I don't think that Kevin fella can do _any_ of those things!" He gestured at the closed door with his pipe before leaning back and taking a deep breath from the pipe before blowing out the smoke slowly.

Enya Shelfley refused to answer and Elliot continued, "I tell you, I've got a bad feeling about that Kevin boy. Just you wait, when you least expect it, he'll turn around and do something to hurt Bryony mark my words." He growled angrily.

His sister frowned, "That's all it is Elliot. It's just one of those 'doom' feelings you get. You don't know that Kevin will do something like that." She hissed back angrily.

**North Pole Hallway, 11:05 am**

Bryony stepped back from the door and quickly walked down the halls towards the lounge where her friends hung out. Her uncle's words ran through her head and she smiled. It seemed that he was the only one in her family that was on her side. She wasn't sure if he was right about Kevin hurting her in anyway and only hoped that it was as her mother called, 'just a doom feeling'. He _did_ get those a lot and according to Deborah, who worked in Mission Control with him, he was known as the 'Doom Laden elf'.

"I really that was just a feeling uncle. I really do." She whispered to herself as she continued to walk.

A/N: Well there's chapter 8:) Don't forget to leave a review please and chapter 9 will be up soon. Also if you haven't guessed by now, Bryony's Uncle Elliot Bane is that old Scottish elf from the movie. He was the one who went on about Santa being seen in the 1800's and the elves had to go into hiding for six years. (Elliot Bane isn't his real name in the film, nore is he Bryony's uncle. I just made that up for the story)


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I don't own any familiar characters from Arthur Christmas. They belong to Aardman which I'm not a part of so I get no money off this fanfic!

**North Pole Headquarters, 11:10 am**

Peter gave a frustrated groan as he stared at his reflection in the mirror. The few strands of hair that stood up at the front of his parted hair, refused to stay down. After spending a moment or two trying to flatten them down, only for the stands to spring back up, he sighed in defeat. "Forget it." He grumbled and smoothed out his orange polo shirt. Orange wasn't exactly his favorite color, but his mother liked it and if it pleased her, then he was happy.

He stole one last glance at himself in the mirror before leaving the room. 'It's been a couple of weeks since I've visited her…I hope she won't be upset.' He thought as he made his journey to his mothers' quarters.

"Nice shirt Peter." An elf snickered as she walked past him in one of the halls. Peter ignored her, he wasn't in the mood to argue with a rude elf and the last thing he wanted was to show up on his mother's door step in a bad mood. He wanted to spend his Saturday having a peaceful chat with his mother instead of ranting on about how nobody listened to him and what not.

Just then, an elf ran around the corner that he was about to turn, and crashed into Peter, sending them both crashing to the ground. Peter shook his head and glared up at the elf who was none other than Bryony.

The female elf stared down at Peter in surprise, "Sorry I didn't know you were around the corner." She gave a sheepish grin.

"Get a room you two!" A passerby elf called while he and his friends wondered past them. Peter and Bryony looked over each other and saw how they were in a very much suggested position. Peter was lying on his back while Bryony was on top of him, so that their bellies were touching. 'This looks _so_ wrong! Wait…what's that?' The wrapping elf thought and looked back into Peter's face with a confused and suspicious look.

"Peter…I think something of yours is poking me…" She said slowly.

The assistant elf blinked, "Oh it's just my HOHO." He said casually.

"Your _what_?" Bryony asked while pulling her head back.

Peter squirmed as he reached into one of his hip pockets and pulled out his red HOHO phone, "See? My HOHO. What did you think it was?" he asked with a raised brow. Bryony's blush didn't go unnoticed and Peter's mouth formed a small 'o' of shock before he gave an uncertain smirk, "Having dirty thoughts about me Miss Shelfley?"

"Not even in your dreams Jones." Bryony grumbled with an unimpressed look.

The assistant gave her a 'whatever' expression, "Well, now that we have that all settled, would you mind getting off me?" He requested. Bryony scrambled off the male and watched as he stood up as well while adjusting his shirt. "So Bryony, where were you off to in such a hurry?" He pondered out loud.

"If you must know, I just left my parents room and I was going to go meet up with my friends. That is unless Steve and Arthur would like to speak to me about what happened last night…" She trailed off. She had totally forgotten about Peter saying he was going to the Claus boys about last night's events.

Peter shook his head, "No they're really busy today so I decided not to tell them about it. Just consider last night a warning." He said with a wave of his hand. Bryony blinked a couple of times, "Really?" She questioned. "Would you rather I go tell them right now?" Peter retorted while crossing his arms and the female elf shook her head quickly. "No, no a warnings fine thank you."

"Good, now if you don't mind, I've got to go meet up with my mother." He stated and continued to walk around the corner while Bryony ran off in search of her friends. As soon as he heard her footsteps fade away, Peter let out a small groan and doubled over slightly as his pointy ears drooped. "Her leg hit me right in the nu...crotch!" he whimpered, "Oh gods that hurt like hell." He added while taking a deep breath and relaxing. When Bryony knocked him over, her leg hit him in his most sensitive spot as she landed. It had taken everything in his will power to keep from crying out or doubling over in pain in front of her.

"Alright, I'm okay." He said and began to walk the rest of the way to his mom's room.

It didn't take him long to reach the door that read, 'Mrs. Jones'. Despite being a widow, Mrs. Jones had refused to give up her husbands name and rejected any suitors that tried to court her after her husband passed away.

He knocked and the door opened to reveal a copper haired female elf. Her face lit up when she saw who was at the door. "Peter, what a pleasant surprise! Come in, come in!" His mother ushered him in before closing the door.

"So what brings you here love?" She added after giving her son a loving hug.

"Oh nothing, I just thought I'd stop by and say hello." Peter replied with a shrug. His mother beamed at him. "Thank you Peter, you know I always love seeing my baby boy." She placed her hands on his cheeks as her eyes roamed over his face.

"I swear you look more like your father every day." She breathed as her eyes teared up. The two elves turned to look at the small picture frame on the table. The picture displayed a male field elf that looked very much like Peter. He had brown eyes and the same chestnut brown colored hair as Peter. The only difference between Mr. Jones and Peter was that the elder male had a round nose whereas Peter's was long and pointy. This was the second trait the assistant elf picked up from his mother; the first was the long fingers with sharp nails.

Mrs. Jones smiled at the picture, "Zane was so happy when you were born, he was so excited to be a daddy. I remember he told me, 'Look at him Lydia, he's perfect!'" She dabbed her eyes with the hankie she carried in her pocket.

Despite having heard that story _thousands _of times, Peter still smiled and nodded. He remembered how his father used to play with him after work or during the weekends. His mother told him stories about how his dad would pick him up and hold him above his head and make airplane noises while saying stuff like, "Look Peter's flying!" and Peter would giggle with excitement.

While Peter didn't remember _those _memories, he did remember the times he had with his father when he was five. He remembered how his dad would lay down on the floor and Peter would crawl all over him and the two would 'wrestle' and roll around on the floor. The game would always end with Mr. Jones 'losing' to Peter. Zane would lie on his back while Peter climbed on top of his stomach and his mother would count to ten in which she would declare Peter the winner. Having 'won' the fight, Peter would give a proud, satisfied smirk.

Unfortunately, the assistant also remembered the day he was told that his father wouldn't be coming back to the room they all shared. Peter had been coloring at the table while his mother lay in bed reading a book. His father had gone out with a battalion for field training and a hungry polar bear had attacked them. It was sad to say that Zane was fatally injured and passed away before the paramedic elves could get him to the hospital.

An elf had come by the room and informed the newly widowed elf and the now fatherless elfling, the tragic news.

Peter gently shook his head to rid himself of the memory and smiled down at his mother. "Well what have you been up to mother?" He asked. Mrs. Jones blinked and gave a small smile at her son, "On nothing much, I've just been here working on different arts and crafts projects." She said while looking around the room. Peter glanced around too and noticed the little projects his mother had finished or was currently working on.

"They look nice." He said and turned back to his mother, was holding out a cup of tea for him. He politely declined with a shake of his head and the two sat on the 'lovebird' couch his mother had. "So what have _you_ been up too?" She asked while sipping her own tea. "Oh nothing much, just working and helping Steve." He replied while leaning back comfortable.

"Have you met any girls?" His mother questioned with a sly look.

Peter sighed and leaned his head back, "Moooom!" he whined with embarrassment. Mrs. Jones giggled behind her hand, "I'm sorry Peter, it's just that you're such a nice boy and I want to see you happy with a young girl and have little babies of your own." The elder female's eyes lit up at the thought, "Imagine you becoming a daddy Peter!"

"Sorry to say this mum, but I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon." He pushed a strand of hair back with a frown.

His mother gave him a small smile, "That's not true Peter, you'll find a pretty, loving girl soon. You just have to know where to look." Peter really didn't feel comfortable talking about these things with his mother and he changed the topic. "So mum, lunch is coming up soon and I was wondering if you wanted to come eat with me. Unless you had a big breakfast or had other plans in which I'd understand if you didn't want to come." He invited hopefully.

Mrs. Jones shook her head, "I'd love to join you for lunch. I had a small breakfast and I don't have any other plans for the day." She replied with a shrug in which Peter beamed. They spent the next half hour having small talk before taking off for lunch.

A/N: And there you have Peter's mother. She's a lot nicer than Bryony's parents and while she does want her son to get married and have kids, she doesn't force it on him like the Shelfley's. Anywho, she, as well as Bryony's family will make some more appearances in later chapters. 

I think I'll have the next chapter focus on Bryony's friends just to give them a bit more background. Since I've already given a lot of Peter's background, I'll be doing a chapter on Bryony's history. That'll be in chapter 11. After that, we'll see what Kevin and Tanya are up too and then the story will really get moving with the romance and drama and what not.;)

Oh and before I forget; I mentioned in this chapter that Peter had sharp nails, this is actually true! I was looking at a screen cap with him and I noticed that his nails were sharp. Instead of being round like all the other characters, his were pointy. Quite an interesting find:)


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Arthur Christmas. The only things I own is the plot for this fanfic and the oc's that appear. :D

**North Pole Headquarters: Ladies Restroom, 12:00 P.M**

**Carlos and Sabrina**

Sabrina paced back and forth in the restroom, she was nervously biting one of her fingernails and every so often she would glance at her watch before looking over at the sink. Resting on the marble white top was a little washcloth and on top of that was a small, long, white device. Taking a shaky breath, Sabrina continued with her pacing. 'Only a couple more minutes.' She thought.

The gift sorter had missed her last monthly five day 'gift' and she had been having a case of morning sickness that had started earlier that week. She had a good suspicion on what was the cause of her symptoms, but she wanted to be sure first.

A small beep from her watch caught her attention and she looked down to turn off her timer. Taking a deep sigh, she slowly approached the counter and picked up the home pregnancy test and started down at the results.

Two pink lines. Positive.

Sabrina couldn't believe it…she was pregnant! The she elf's heart beat with excitement at her discovery and she placed her hand over her belly. Then a thought came to her; while _she_ was overjoyed at the thought of becoming a mother, how would _Carlos_ feel about becoming a dad since there was no doubt that he was the father. 'He's the only one I've ever slept with so of course he's the father.' Sabrina thought with a chuckle and an eye roll.

Making a double check on the test, Sabrina smiled and left the restroom. Propped up against the wall next to the door was Carlos who had been waiting for Sabrina patiently, his arms were crossed and one knee was bent so that his foot was flat against the wall, keeping him balanced. He turned his head and smiled when he saw Sabrina leave the ladies room.

"There you are- whoa, what's that?" He asked before leaning back when Sabrina practically shoved the pregnancy test in his face.

"It's a pregnancy test silly!" She giggled.

"Pregnancy test?" Carlos questioned with a raised brow. "Whose is that?" he added.

Sabrina smirked, "I don't know, I found it on the counter and thought I'd check it out." She then laughed at Carlos' shocked expression, "I'm _kidding_, I would never do that. Anyway, to answer your question, it's mine. I had been feeling a bit off lately and I decided to test a theory which turned out positive." She wiggled the white stick a little. Carlos furrowed his brow in thought,

"So you've been feeling sick, had a 'theory' as you called it, and decided to take a pregnancy test which turned out positive so that means-" He trailed off and looked at his girlfriend as realization started to cross his face. Sabrina nodded with a big grin, "I'm pregnant. We're going to be parents!"

Carlos was in shock, "I'm going to be a dad?" He whispered while Sabrina nodded once more. When his question had been confirmed, the male field elf gave a loud laugh before pulling the sorting elf into a hug. "Sabrina that's great!" He exclaimed and pressed his lips to hers in a loving kiss. Finally he let her go and knelt down to press his face gently to her belly, a huge smile was plastered on his face.

"What would you want? A boy or a girl?" Sabrina asked while running a hand over the future father's head.

Carlos' response came out muffled by Sabrina's belly, but his response was still clear. "I don't really care what we get as long as it comes out healthy and it looks like its mother." The blond female smiled, "I was actually hoping it would look like its daddy."

"Maybe it'll look like both of us." Carlos stated with a shrug as Sabrina nodded in agreement.

After a few moments of hugging, Sabrina tapped her boyfriend's shoulder, "Give me a second love, I've got to throw this test away. The results are starting to fade." Carlos reluctantly let her go and watched as she quickly opened the restroom door and carefully tossed it into the nearby trashcan. She then turned back to Carlos and resumed her hugging.

"When should we tell the others?" She questioned as they began to stroll down the hall with their arms wrapped around each other. Carlos smiled, "I guess we can tell them next time we all get together." His brows furrowed in thought once more as he looked down at Sabrina, "Hey, now that you're pregnant, you're gonna have to ease off the training for a while, especially once you get closer to your due date…whenever that is." He said seriously.

Sabrina licked her lips and nodded, "I know but luckily as a gift sorter, my only real training is practicing on the sorter controls. I rarely have to do any physical training."

"Yeah well…I know I'm new to this parent stuff, but I don't think it's healthy for you to be under too much stress while you're expecting. Just promise you'll be careful." Carlos pleaded as he stepped in front of Sabrina and took her hands in his. The she elf carefully took one of her hands from his and gently placed it on his cheek. "Don't _worry, _I'll be fine. I promise to be careful." With that, she placed a quick peck on his nose and the two continued down the hall.

A chuckle from Carlos cause Sabrina to look up at him, "What?"

"You know a lot of people are going to frown upon us since were not married." Carlos stated in a matter-of-fact way. Sabrina shrugged, "Let them think whatever they want but just because we're not married yet doesn't make us bad parents." She replied and sighed. She was about to continue walking when Carlos grabbed her hand and pulled her in the opposite direction.

"Carlos, where are we going? The lounge is in _that_ direction!" The sorter complained while pointing in the other direction. Carlos shook his head, "I know but…I want to spend some time with you alone…in my room if you know what I mean." He sent her a sly look which she caught right away and smirked back.

"Oh Carlos, you naughty boy." She teased before the two of them laughed and strolled back to Carlos' room for a quick, private celebration.

**North Pole Headquarters: Elf paramedic offices, 12:30 P.M**

**Andrew and Norah**

It was a relatively slow day for the doctors, nurses and paramedics, almost too slow for Norah's liking. Despite it being a Saturday, some elves still had to work on the weekends; just because it was the weekend didn't mean elves stopped getting hurt during those days off. Luckily, Norah only had to work for about half an hour before the next medical personal took over her shift. 'I just wish that during my shift, id have a patient or two instead of sitting here in complete boredom reading the same medical book for the hundredth time!' Norah thought with a scowl.

She brushed her long brown bangs back to the side before turning the page in her book. A knock at the door caught her attention. She quickly opened the door and saw one of the other paramedics leaning against the frame, "You've got a patient waiting for you in room 205." He said before walking away.

Norah grabbed her clipboard and made her way to room 205. When she got there, she quietly knocked on the door and opened it slowly. "Alright what seems to be the problem…Andrew? What are you doing here?" To say that she was surprised to see her boyfriend there was an understatement. Andrew gave her a sheepish grin and held up his left hand.

The paramedic she elf gasped when she saw his injury. His wrist was swollen and slightly bruised and his pinky was sticking outwards in an odd angle. Looking at his face, Norah could see behind his smile that he was in a lot of pain.

"What happened?" She asked in concern as she reached out to gently hold his hand to inspect it. She pulled away when the male gave a small pained cry, "I'm sorry!" She apologized quickly.

Andrew shook his head, "It's alright. I was doing some extra training with one of the other Special Santa Unit elf's and it got a little out of hand and…well…"He held up his hand once more and winced as Norah carefully held it.

"Oh Andrew." She sighed and led him to the small x-ray machine. "Put your hand here so I can get a few pictures." She instructed. Andrew complied and within a moment, Norah had the pictures.

"Well your pinky's obviously dislocated so I'll have to push that back into place. As for your wrist, you have a level three sprain. I'll be able to patch you up but you're going to have to take it easy for the next couple of weeks." She stated while grabbing a splint for his finger and a bandage wrap for his wrist. After she gathered her materials, she timidly approached Andrew.

Norah hesitated for a second and gave a nervous sigh, "I'm gonna start with the pinky. I'm not going to lie so I'm telling you now, this _will_ hurt a bit. But I want you to know that I would _never_ want to hurt you like this."

Andrew shrugged, "Just do what you gotta do. I don't hold grudges easily." He said with a reassuring smile which Norah returned. "Alright, now just relax and it will hurt less." She instructed and Andrew did as he was told.

A loud crack was heard followed by a restrained yelp. Norah put the finger in the splint and then carefully wrapped her boyfriend's wrist. The whole process only took about five minutes. "There, all done!" Norah announced as Andrew carefully slid off the examination table that he had been sitting on.

The Special Santa Unit elf looked over his girlfriend's handy work and nodded, "Thanks Norah!"

"Now don't forget to be more careful." Norah reminded and gave him a kiss on the tip of his nose before she turned and started to clean up the room. Andrew watched as the paramedic returned the extra bandages to the cupboard. "So Norah…when are you getting off from your shift?" he asked innocently. Norah glanced at her watch,

"I'm actually off in about ten minutes. Do you have something planned for us?" She questioned with a smile.

Andrew smirked, "Yeah I thought you'd like to see a movie with me."

"Alright what kind of movie?" Norah asked, not that she really cared. She loved almost any kind of movie. The other elf's smirk grew, "Oh just one of those horror movies." He replied with a shrug.

"Oooh a scary movie? I suppose you'll want to hide your face in my shoulder?" She teased lightly, causing Andrew to chuckle, "Actually I was hoping that _you_ would hide your face in _my_ shoulder." He retorted, earning a giggle from Norah.

The she elf nodded, "Alright Mr. Brave-Romantic, I'll join you for the movie." With that they were about to leave when Andrew's HOHO beeped, signaling that he had a new text message. Quickly fishing out his phone from his pocket, Andrew looked at the screen and read the message. When he finished, he gave a small 'huh' sound and looked over at the female who was also looking at her phone. Apparently she also got the memo.

"I wonder what their 'big news' is." Norah wondered as they walked towards her office so she could punch out for the day.

"Who knows, but it must be big if they really want us all to be there at dinner." Andrew replied while setting up his alarm on his phone. If it was really big news then he didn't want to keep his friends waiting.

After Norah punched out, the two elves walked to Andrews' room when he glanced at Norah, "Hey…you don't mind watching a Japanese horror film right?" He asked nervously. Norah rose a brow, "Is it in English or is it one of those Japanese movies with the English subtitles on the bottom that you have to read throughout the whole movie because the characters are actually speaking Japanese and you're so busy reading the subtitles that you miss out in half the movie?"

Andrew cleared his throat uneasily, "Uh…it's the second one, BUT it's really good and it's really scary, you'll like it I promise!" He assured and continued to lead Norah. The female elf shook her head and chuckled at her boyfriend.

**North Pole Headquarters: Computer Lab, 12:45 P.M**

**Tardy and Deborah**

The sound of many clicking keys filled the air in the computer lab as the various elves went on doing what they pleased. Many were either browsing the net or playing games or getting ahead in their work. Tardy and Deborah were part of the third group, the nerd group, as some people called them.

Deborah was going over some information from past missions that she had saved on a USB drive. Tardy was sitting at the computer next to hers and was doing some research on some fancy high tech gadgets form around the world.

Every so often he would glance at Deborah but then shoot his eyes back to his screen whenever she would turn to look at him. Deborah would just smile and then get back to work. Even though they were in fact together, for some reason, they would have moments where they would both be too shy to communicate well. As a result, they would commonly endure many awkward moments and they had to be nudged in the right direction by their friends.

Deborah figured that it was partially her fault that they were moving so slowly. She was knew that she was the one that wasn't ready to move past a simple kiss. Tardy was constantly trying to get past 'first base', as they say, yet she would always talk him out of it and they would just end up chatting. Tardy insisted that it didn't bother him, but she knew that deep down it did.

As it was, right now was a good example of their awkward silences.

"Deborah?"

Said she elf's ears twitched at the sound of her name and she looked over at herboyfriend. "Yes Tardy?" she replied with a smile and adjusted her glasses. The male shifted in his seat, "I'm sorry." He apologized softly while looking down at his keyboard. His pointy ears were drooped down with shame.

Deborah tilted her head and furrowed her brows, "Sorry for what?"

"For trying to move this relationship too fast." He replied as he looked her in the eye. Deborah blinked in surprise, "Tardy, you have nothing to be sorry about. I'm the one that's slowing us down. If anything, I'm the one that should be sorry and I am! You're trying so hard to take our relationship to the next level yet here I am blowing you off every chance I get. But please don't take it that I don't love you because I _do_ love you it's just…well, I've never been in any romantic relationship before and I'm a bit scared about going past the first level." She explained. Her hand was smoothing down her really short black hair.

It was Tardy's turn to raise a brow, "Scared?"

Deborah nodded, "Yeah, it's silly I know but, I've heard so many stories from other elves or about human females who get caught up in a bad relationship and end up getting hurt by the men. I heard the women get hurt mentally, emotionally and even physically…I don't want that to happen to me!" She whimpered softly as she stared back at her screen.

Yes she had heard the stories of women, both human and elf, who rushed into a romance only to have find that not all love stories have a happy ending.

"I would never do anything to hurt you Deborah." Tardy stated softly as he looked his girlfriend over. The female mission control elf looked back over at Tardy and smiled, "I know you wouldn't, it's just…"

"You can't help being cautious." Tardy finished with a soft understanding smile. Deborah nodded, she was grateful to have an elf like Tardy and she was sure that eventually, she would be ready to move onto level two, then three and then the final stage and hopefully they would get a family out of it. 'I just wish that Bryony's fiancé was more like Tardy. Kevin really doesn't deserve her.' Deborah mused as she and Tardy went back to work.

It had only been a few moments before Tardy spoke up again, "So...did you get the text from Carlos or Sabrina?" He asked without taking his eyes off the screen. Deborah nodded, "Yeah, apparently they have something important they want to share with us." She replied. Tardy chuckled, "It must be pretty good for them to actually send us a text to remind us to get together tonight."

Deborah giggled, "Yeah, too bad we won't know till this evening." She agreed while logging off her computer and putting her USB away in her pocket. Tardy did the same and the two elves stood up to stretch.

"So what do you want to do know?" Deborah asked as she and Tardy left the computer lab and started to walk down the halls. Tardy shrugged, "I guess we can have a late lunch since we basically missed it." He suggested. Deborah smiled, "That sounds good to me and I _am_ pretty hungry."

Tardy grinned and held out his arm for the other elf to grab, "Then let's get going." He stated and started to lead the female over to the cafeteria. As they walked, Deborah let out a content sigh and rested her head against the alarm/gadget specialist elf's shoulder. Neither of them were very popular amongst the other elves, but they both knew that they were lucky to have each other, no matter how fast or slow their relationship went.

**North Pole Headquarters: Main Hangar, 1:00 P.M**

**William and Kathy**

William pulled off his blue cap and wiped the small beads of sweat that had formed on his forehead with his arm. He then pulled his cap back on. Despite living in a fortress made of mostly ice, it was surprisingly easy to work up a sweat just by helping clean the S-1.

'At least we're almost done.' William thought as he looked around and saw the other 3,000 elves that had volunteered to help wash the ship.

Nearby, he saw his girlfriend and love of his life, Kathy, fanning herself with her hand. William smirked before calling out,

"Uh, excuse me miss! No slacking off please!"

The female S-1 crew elf jumped and looked over to see who had called out. When she saw that it was one of helmsman, more specifically William, she smirked back at him and gave a mock salute, "Yes sir, no slacking off here sir!"

The two elves shared a laugh before getting back to scrubbing the huge red ship. They had been at it since _six_ in the morning and they were probably going to take another hour or so to finish completely. Williams' tiny muscles were aching from all the scrubbing and he was pretty sure Kathy was just as tired as him.

Kathy was looking forward to finishing so that she could relax and perhaps take a small nap before enjoying the rest of her Saturday. 'The sooner we finish the better.' She thought as she cleaned faster and added, 'Next time I'll volunteer to help clean the inside.'

"Alright everyone, move back for the rinse!" The call came from one of the rise elves who were getting the large hoses ready. The elves moved back and watched as the water blasted out and rinsed away all of the soap, which rolled off into the drains at the bottom.

"At least all we have to do now is just dry it." William stated while handing Kathy a couple of drying rags. Kathy nodded, "It's a good thing we don't have to worry about waxing it till its closer to Christmas." She shuddered at the thought. The waxing process took an extra hour or two for the elves, but luckily the elves didn't have to worry about doing that till a couple of days before Christmas that way the ship looked nice and shiny on Christmas eve during the delivers. 'Not that anyone but us sees it.' Kathy mumbled in her mind.

As soon as the rinse elves finished removing all the soap, a large gust of air blew over the ship drying most of it but leaving the stubborn droplets behind. Once the fan was off, the rest of the cleaning crew walked back to the ship and started to wipe up the small drops of water with their cloths.

"So what are you going to do after we're done?" William asked Kathy when she moved into ear reach of him. The S-1 crew elf snickered while shaking her head, "I don't know about you, but I'm gonna take a nice nap. What about you?" She looked over at the helmsman who smiled at the thought of sleeping.

"I think I'll be taking a nap too cause sleeping sounds like a really good idea right now." He replied as he paused in his work and rotated one of his shoulders that had started to cramp up. 'I'm _really _going to be feeling this in the morning.' He whined as he went back to work.

Sure enough, it took the elves about an hour to fully dry the ship and officially say they were finished. With that, the elves tossed their cleaning rags into the large baskets where they were stored until the next use. They then all walked over to the many long tables that had been set up so the elves can place their phones and other unwater proof belongings.

The security elves that were there to make sure that no one's stuff went missing, moved out of the way as the elves filed passed them.

William made his way around everyone, "Alright Table: E, section 12…there it is!" he mumbled as he picked up his phone. It was a good thing that the tables were labeled with letters and numbers so it made it a whole lot easier to remember where one left their stuff.

"Hm, I got a message from Carlos." He read as the screen informed him that he had a text. He read over the short message and looked up when he heard Kathy approaching him, also looking at her phone. "I assume you got the message too?" He questioned.

Kathy nodded, "Yeah, but mine was from Sabrina. Apparently it's really good news and they really want us all to be there. I guess I should take my nap right now…and hopefully I don't over sleep."

William chuckled, "We're not meeting up till 6:00, and I highly doubt you'll over sleep."

"William," she started, "my naps are usually like three sometimes _four _hours long." She put a hand on her hip while William rubbed his head, "Oh! Well…_I _don't take very long naps, so if you want, I can wake you up when I do." He suggested.

Kathy shrugged, "Yeah that'll probably be the best plan cause if I set up my alarm, I'll probably just end up turning it off and then going back to bed." William nodded,

"Alright, so I guess we should get to sleep right now and then I'll wake you up in an hour or two." He said while Kathy nodded, "Sounds good to me. Now if you don't mind, I'd _really_ like to take that nap now but I'll see you later." She stated while heading off to her room while William went to his.

As soon as Kathy's head hit the pillow, she fell fast asleep.

A/N: Hello everyone I'm back! Anywho, I'm _really_ sorry for the long wait, I've been busy with other stuff so I never really had a chance to update my stories. But obviously I was able to find some extra time and made a nice long chapter for y'all:D

Unfortunately Peter and Bryony don't make an appearance as I wanted to focus on Bryony's friends and give them all a chapter of their own, but our two favorite elves _will_ come out in the next chapter, I promise. 

Anywho, I hope you guys (and gals) enjoyed this chapter. Now I'm off to work on and update some of my other fics _and_ if I'm not too tired after that, I just might have the next chapter for this fic up by tonight. :D


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own Arthur Christmas. That is all, thank you.:)

_Dream sequence: North Pole headquarters, Shelfley's room: Bryony age six._

"_But mother, I don't __want__ to wear a dress! It makes me look too girly!" Bryony whined a six year old as she crossed her arms and pouted at the feminine clothing that her mother was holding up in front of her. _

_Mrs. Shelfley frowned at her daughter, "You __are_ _a girl Bryony." She retorted while staking a step towards her daughter. Bryony took a step back while shaking her head, "But I don't see why I have to wear that. None of the other girls in the class is going to wear one." The tiny elf mumbled back and sighed in defeat as her mother began to change her. _

"_Bryony I don't think you'll be the only one wearing a dress." Mrs. Shelfley sighed, "Now turn around so I can tie the bow in the back." She instructed. _

_Her daughter turned and grumbled, "I can't believe I'm going to school like this"_

_Mr. Shelfley shook his head, "You look fine; now hold still so I can take a picture of you for the family photo album." He held up his camera for emphasis. Bryony's mother quickly pulled Bryony's mid-back, dark brown hair into a high pony tail before standing aside so her husband could snap the picture. _

"_Smile sweetie!" Mr. Shelfley instructed._

_His daughter sighed again before giving a big fake smile. As soon as the camera flashed, she dropped her lips back into a frown. "Alright, now let's get going, your classes will start soon!" Mrs. Shelfley announced as she took her daughters hand and led her out the room. _

_As the two elves walked down the hall, Bryony looked up at her mom, "Mum?" She questioned softly. Mrs. Shelfley looked down,_

"_Yes Bryony?"_

"_Would you take me to get a haircut after school? I want to make my hair really short like the other working elves!" Bryony gave her mother the puppy dog look. The older female stared down at her daughter in shock. She knew of which hair style her daughter was talking about. Many of the younger female working elves had started to cut their hair very short; it was a trend that was growing quickly much to Mrs. Enya Shelfley's displeasure. In her opinion, it made the women look like men and made it hard to tell the difference between the males and the females. _

_After a moment of awkward silence in which Mrs. Shelfley realized that her daughter was still waiting for the answer, she shook her head, "No absolutely not! You are not going to get that ridiculous hair style." _

_Hearing the 'I've made my decision and that's that' tone in her mother's reply, Bryony decided it was best to drop the subject for now and looked forward as they continued to walk to her class room. _

Bryony's head shot up as she felt her HOHO vibrate in her pocket, indicating that she had a new text message. 'Flashback dreams, you've gotta love em.' Bryony mused as she read over the message that she had received from Sabrina.

**Hey Bryony! I hope ur enjoying ur Saturday, Carlos and I have some good news to tell U guys! :D Meet us in Lounge Room # 26 2day at 6:00 and we'll tell u about it. C U later. ;) **

Bryony looked at the time section on her phone; it read 5:30 P.M.

"I guess I'll be able to meet up with them after all." The wrapping elf thought as she stood up. After the meeting with her parents and eavesdropping on her mother and uncle, she had hoped to meet up with her friends only to remember that they had other plans for the day and wouldn't be available till later. In the meantime, she had spent most of the day with Arthur, just chatting.

After a few hours of gossiping, Bryony announced that she was feeling a bit drowsy and bid Arthur good bye. Bryony soon found herself in the library where it was nice and quiet and allowed herself to dose off at one of the tables.

Chuckling she left the library and started to make her way to the lounge. As she walked, her hand rose to her head and felt her Mohawk, making sure that it hadn't messed up while she was asleep. She sighed in relief when she felt that it was still neat and in place. Thinking of her hair, Bryony remembered back when she first got her now trademark hair style.

_Flashback: North Pole Headquarters, Shelfley's room: Bryony age 18._

"_WHAT DID YOU DO TO YOUR HAIR?" Mrs. Shelfley yelled in both shock and anger. Mr. Shelfley shook his head in disappointment at his teenaged daughter. _

_Bryony gave a sheepish grin as she rubbed the back of her head and felt her now extremely short hair tickle her hand. "Well…I figured that since I'm 18 already and I'm _technically_ an adult, I thought that it's __my__ choice that I could fix my hair like this." She replied while shrugging her shoulders. _

"_Brasil are you seeing what our daughters done?" Mrs. Shelfley exclaimed as she stared at her husband and pointed at her daughter. Mr. Shelfley nodded, "I see it alright. Bryony what were you thinking?"_

_The teen elf rolled her eyes, "Well I told you that I wanted to do this for a while now and you two didn't let me." She paused and gave her parents another sheepish look and added, "So of course I made the decision on my own." _

_Her parents glared at her, "I can't believe you did this without telling anyone!" Her mother complained. Her father nodded, "Yeah and did you __have__ to die your 'Mohawk' blonde?" He questioned._

_Bryony crossed her arms, "I like it blonde and it's not like __no one__ knew I was going to do it."_

_Mrs. Shelfley furrowed her brows, "Who else knew about your decision?"_

_A knock from the door sounded and Mr. Shelfley answered it, "Elliot…what an unexpected surprise." He announced while said Scottish elf pushed past him and beamed at his niece, "Bryony! Ye got the haircut ye wanted!" He exclaimed as he approached the young female and examined her brand new style, "It looks great!" He added while the older Shelfleys just continued to glare._

_End Flashback_

Bryony gave a soft smile while shaking her head. That had been one of her most intense days involving her parents, the second was when she turned 21 and got her brow pierced; her mother literally fainted when she saw the piercing; and the third was when she was told who she was going to marry.

'I wonder how they would react if I told them I was going to get a tattoo?' She thought with a smirk. Knowing her parents, her mother would most likely faint and her dad would probably have a heart attack. The fainting would be a bit funny but the heart attack would be no laughing matter and even though Bryony wasn't really happy with her father, she would never want to purposely hurt him just for her amusement.

Now if she were to tell _Kevin_ that she was going to get a permanent marking on her body and _he_ had a heart attack, well that would work out pretty well for Bryony. It would certainly postpone the wedding by a week or two.

Realizing on what she was thinking about, Bryony shook her head dismissively, 'Now, now Bryony, it's not nice to think those kinds of thoughts about people, no matter how much they deserve it.' She scolded herself and continued walking.

When she finally reached the assigned lounge room, it was already 5:45 p.m. Carlos and Sabrina was already sitting at one of the tables, talking to each other. Bryony casually strolled over to the table and sat in the chair next to Sabrina's.

The blonde elf looked over at the newcomer and beamed, "Hey Bryony! Oh I can't wait to tell you the good news!" She squealed while clapping her hands together with excitement. Bryony smiled, "Is everyone else coming?" She questioned and Carlos nodded,

"Yeah, they should be getting here right about now." He looked up and smiled, "And here comes Tardy and Deborah right now."

The other two females turned and saw the two shyest members of the group walking towards the table. Tardy threw an empty bag of chips in a nearby trashcan before sitting at the round table, next to Deborah. Following close behind was Andrew and Norah who seemed to be chatting about some horror movie they had just watched and they too, took a seat at the table.

The only ones missing were William and Kathy. Sabrina glanced at her watch and saw that it was now 5:55p.m. "They helped wash the S-1 today, so they're probably taking a nap." She stated out loud. 'If they aren't able to make it on time, we'll just fill them in later.' She reasoned.

"Actually, we're here."

The group turned to see William walk in with Kathy, who was leaning against him and covering her mouth in a yawn. Carlos smiled, "Great, now we can tell you the big news."

The seven other elves leaned forward in anticipation of what their two friends were going to say. Sabrina and Carlos let out big grins before Sabrina stated, "Okay, you guys are never going to believe it but…I'm pregnant." She said this calmly and watched her friends' reactions.

It took about ten seconds for everyone to react. When they did, the boys got up and gave Carlos the manly 'congratulations you're about to be a dad' pat on the back, while the girls gave a loud chorus squeal of joy before getting up and hugging the mother to be.

The commotion coming from the ladies caused the other occupants in the room to turn and stare at the group. It just so happened that Peter was sitting at one of the nearby tables with his mother. The moment he saw just who were the ones making all the noise, he groaned and tuned while putting his face in his hands.

Lydia took her eyes off the celebrating group and tilted her head at her son's reaction. "Do you know them?" She asked.

Peter nodded, "Yes, that's the group that I was telling you about. They're the ones that snuck out yesterday." His mother looked back to the group, "Oh that's them? They don't look so bad…in fact; they look like a really nice bunch."

"Yeah a nice bunch of migraine starters." Peter grumbled back while his mother nudged him with her elbow.

"Oh be nice Peter, they can't be all that bad."

Her son shook his head, "They can, especially Bryony, and I know all about Bryony since I have to work with her sometimes." Peter rubbed his temples, "Look mom, why don't we go hang out somewhere else? I really don't want to see Miss. Shelfley more than I have too."

Mrs. Jones stared at her son in shock, "Peter!" She scolded softly. Peter just stood up and gently pulled his mother up and started to lead her towards the door. The last thing he needed was Bryony seeing him with his mother. 'I can just imagine all the 'mothers boy' jokes she'd come up with.' Peter thought with a shiver, he had already heard quite a few from other elves throughout the years, he didn't want to hear them from Bryony. Once they were at the door, Peter glanced back to see if Bryony had seem him before gently pushing his mother out and leaving the room himself.

What Peter didn't know was that while he was trying to rush his mother, he had managed to catch Bryony's attention and she watched as he left the room with the older female that Bryony could only assume was his mother since he bore a bit of resemblance to her.

Shaking her head, Bryony looked back at Sabrina, "I'm so happy for you Sabrina!" She exclaimed while giving her friend another hug. Sabrina hugged her back and giggled, "Thanks! _I_ still can't believe I'm going to be a mother!"

The other girls nodded in agreement and continued to congratulate her. Carlos was talking to the guys who were wishing him luck with his upcoming fatherhood.

The two future parents thanked their friends before sitting back down and continued to chat throughout the evening.

**North Pole Headquarters: Just outside Tanya's room. 6:45p.m**

The door to Tanya's room cracked opened just enough to let the owner's head through. Tanya looked down both ends of the hall and saw that there were still lots of elves wondering around. Frowning, she pulled her head back in and closed the door. After securely locking it, she turned back towards her bed and smirked at the occupant.

"I'm guessing the coast isn't clear yet?" he questioned while leaning on one arm. Tanya shook her head, "Nope, there are still too many elves wondering around out there." She walked to the bed and straddled the male before adding, "But I guess we can consider that a good thing," She was now lying flat on him, "We can spend a little more time together and have a bit more 'fun'." Tanya placed a small kiss on the boy's lips.

The male smirked up at her, "You want more? But we've been at this all day."

Tanya shrugged, "Can you blame me? Peter's being stubborn and I'm practically starved. I need a pick me up before I get back to work on that little teachers pet." At this point, she rose a brow, "And what about you? What would your girl say if she found out you had agreed to do this, _or_ when she finds out that _you_ were the one that came to me?"

The boy elf chuckled, "Oh she won't find out if no one catches us. See that's the good thing about being a male, you can say that you're a virgin when you really aren't and a girl can't tell if you're lying."

"Oh you're such a naughty boy Kevin." Tanya giggled as the fiancé of Bryony rolled himself so that he was now on top of Tanya.

'Yes, as far as Bryony knows, I'm still 'pure'. I just have to make sure she never finds out.' Kevin thought as he prepared for his next 'pleasure round'.

A/N: Ooooh Snap! Kevin's having an affair with Tanya! He's such a slim ball isn't he? Just wait till Bryony finds out, and she _will_ find out;)

Chapter 12 coming soon


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Sweet Zeus it feels soooo weird yet great to be working on this fic again! **

**First and foremost, I would like to give my most humble apology for keeping y'all waiting for **_**over two years**_ **for this chapter! :( I got so caught up with homework and projects and all sorts of things I had to do to finish college that I pretty much forgot about this fic! I truly feel horrible for leaving y'all with this cliff hanger, and I really hope that this chapter pleases you. Though be warned, it's been a while since I've worked on this, and I **_**may**_** be a little rusty, but give me a chapter or two and I'll have things flowing smoothly again. ;)**

**Disclaimer: Arthur Christmas does **_**NOT**_** belong to me…it belongs to Aardman and Sony Pictures animations. The only things I own are the OC's. **

**North Pole HQ: South Wing Gym and Training Room**

**Monday 1:30 P.M**

Bryony panted as she jogged on the treadmill, beads of sweat rolling down her cheeks. To her right were Norah and Sabrina and on her left Deborah and Kathy, all of whom were exercising on their own machines.

Sabrina turned to the Scottish elf, "You should take it easy Bryony." She advised as she took in the wrapper's sweat soaked shirt.

Norah peaked out from her end of the line, "She's right. Keep running like that and you'll pass out from dehydration." The medical elf warned.

Bryony reached to the machines pad and pressed a button, lowering the speed to a comfortable walking pace. She reached into the cup holder and pulled out her water bottle, taking a long swing from it. After taking a couple of gulps, she sighed in relief and paused the treadmill to catch her breath.

Following her friends lead, Deborah paused her machine and took the opportunity to rest a while as well.

Kathy smirked, "Come on Debbie, you weren't going _that_ fast. There's no need for a break." She teased.

Deborah glared at her, "I work in mission control…I'm _not_ a field elf. I'm not used to such intense workouts!"

"You were jogging as fast as Sabrina." Kathy retorted.

"Which isn't very fast…basically a light jog." Norah stated with a shrug.

"And that's cause she's pregnant-"

"_Alright_ I get it! I'm just not very athletic." Deborah snapped while the rest of the girls laughed good heartedly.

Bryony wiped her face as the rest of her friends ceased their workouts. "Oh, we're just playin' with ya." She reasoned, flashing her friend a playful grin.

Deborah rolled her eyes, though she smiled as well, "Yeah I know."

Deciding that now would be a time to call it a day, Bryony stepped off the treadmill and looked over her friends. "Are any of you free for the rest of the day?"

The girls all shared a look before nodding,

"I got up early to do some work on my computer, so I've got nothing going on." Deborah stated proudly while adjusting her glasses. The other girls quickly joined in,

"I don't either!"

"Me neither!"

Norah glanced at her watch, "I've got work, but I'm doing the night shift and not due till nine, so I'm free till then." She tilted her head in question, "What do you have planned?"

Bryony shrugged as she led the small group to the ladies dressing room, "Well, Arthur was going down to visit the toy making elves and invited me to join him. Then it got me wondering if any of you wanted to join us."

The girls perked up in curiosity. "You know…I don't think I've ever really met any toy making elves." Kathy mused out loud, "I think this would be a great time to go check them out and maybe make some new friends."

"That sounds fun!" Sabrina agreed, clapping her hands in excitement. Deborah and Norah nodded in agreement.

Bryony smiled, "Great! Then we'll head over to Arthur's office once we're all done freshening up." She announced.

**North Pole HQ: Arthur's Mail Office. 2:45 P.M**

Bryony knocked on the brightly decorated door that was Arthur's mail room. She and the other four elves only had to wait for a second or two before the door swung open and they were greeted by a cheerful Arthur.

"Hello there Bryony! Aaaannnnd…" the young Santa rubbed his chin in thought as he looked over the other elves before snapping his fingers, "Norah, Sabrina, Deborah and Kathy!" he added while pointing at each elf as he said their names.

All except Bryony gave the tall, lanky, young man a salute, to which he waved his hand dismissively, "Oh you all don't have to do that!" he assured kindly before adding, "Well…at least not to me…Steve still requires everyone to follow military protocol." He shook his head and then motioned the group into the room.

"We'll head over to the factory in just a moment. I just need to edit the list of children's orders. I got a few more letters this morning and I got a bit busy sending out the replies and well…it made a bit of a set back- not that I'm complaining or anything!" Arthur rambled as he shuffled through several children's letters and wish lists.

Bryony looked over her friend and tilted her head. "No wool sweater today?" she asked innocently.

Arthur paused and looked down at himself. Instead of wearing one of his usual colorful sweaters he almost always wore, he had decided to go with a simple white t-shirt and a red, long-sleeved button up shirt over it. For bottoms, he went with loose blue jeans and for footwear he decided that it would be best to wear his white and red sneakers.

"It gets a little warm inside the toy factory and wearing a wool sweater only makes things worse." Arthur replied with a shrug. With that, he turned back and proceeded to type out something on his small computer.

While he worked, Bryony took the moment to glance around his crowded and _messy_ mail office.

As the new Santa, he had a better work place that was _much_ bigger and more organized, but Arthur insisted that he work in his old office…at least while he responded to children's letters. Apparently it had a more tranquil and 'homey' atmosphere that allowed him to relax and focus on his work.

Bryony figured it had more to do with the fact that he was used to this tiny room and wasn't too comfortable in moving into a different one. Not that she blamed him of course, especially since he had spent the last several years in here away from everyone else.

"Alright! We're set to go!" Arthur announced, standing from his chair and picking up a stack of papers from a nearby printer. He opened the door, motioning for the female elves to leave first. "Ladies first."

They followed him down many corridors that led further and further away from the modern elf dorms and work rooms, to a more…rundown looking area of the underground headquarters that housed the thousands of elves as well as the Claus family.

Though they were still underground, the halls and various doors located on either side were made out of wood, serving as a layer between an occupant and the freezing ice that lay on the other side of the large planks.

This was the oldest part of the North Pole HQ and was the area where the original Claus family and the elves used to live and work.

Well…it's _still_ the area where some of the elves live. In fact, many of the offices were still in use and the reindeer holding pens were located in this section as well.

Deborah observed her surroundings as they moved.

The halls didn't look _that_ bad. Sure the walls looked a dinged up, but the rooms and offices seemed safely useable.

However, that was what bothered the technician. The halls and rooms could pass safety inspections, though just barley. This zone wasn't as privileged or luxurious as the areas that she and her friends lived and worked. This section of the HQ was just…livable…as if no one cared about the conditions the elves that lived here had to endure.

'I wonder if any residents in the area have filed a complaint for better home and office maintenance?' she wondered. If no one had, of they had been over looked for more 'important' matters, perhaps she herself could send a request in to Steve. She was pretty high up in the ranks and worked in mission control. It wouldn't be that hard to have a word with him. If only to have someone come and at least replace the wooden walls that were splintering and chipping with old paint.

Finally, after much walking and small talk, the group arrived at a pair of large wooden doors where Arthur paused. The elves looked up at the bright red words painted across the gigantic slabs.

TOY FACTORY

USE CAUTION WHEN ENTERING!

Below the writing, hanging on a small nail, was a sign that read ELVES AT WORK.

The five elves weren't even sure whether the sign was necessary as the noise coming from the room was proof enough that everyone inside was hard at work.

"Since none of you have been here, I'll give you a heads up." Arthur announced while smiling down at the technically advantaged, military styled elves, "These guys um…don't exactly follow the strict protocol that Steve has set up for most of the North Pole." He started while rubbing the back of his head.

Bryony raised a brow, "What do you mean?"

"Well…they're a bit…eccentric…some are a bit on the hyper side and most are pretty much laid back." He jerked a thumb in the doors direction, "To put in simply, these are the elves that didn't make it or couldn't fit in with any of the other ranks that Steve has set up."

"So…in other words, these are the…rejects?" Deborah flinched. She hated that she had come up with that word, but that was the first one that came to mind when Arthur described these mysterious elves.

Arthur shrugged, "Technically speaking, yes. They are." His smile returned, "But they're loads of fun and most of them are some of my closest friends!" he exclaimed happily while putting his hands on the doors, "I'll show you!" With that, he pulled the doors open and ushered his friends inside.

The moment the sextet entered the enormous room, nearly all working sounds stopped and many of the elves looked up to observe the new occupants.

The working elves seemed as surprised to see the five elves as they were to see them.

Bryony's mouth was open in a small 'O' of awe. These elves did _not_ look like the elves she was used to seeing.

Sure they had the same large head, thin bodies and the trademark long, pointed ears, but what set them apart from her and every other elf she had come across was the fact that none of them wore the required work clothes that other elves wore on week days. In fact, there didn't seem to be any sort of uniform amongst the workers.

Upon further inspection, Bryony found that many of them were wearing a variation of shirts, vests, sweaters with the sleeves rolled up for easier work, pants (some torn at the knees), boots, and so on. Some of the boys wore some form of caps (some on backwards) or bandanas while others that wore nothing bore a full head of hair. A change to what Bryony and the other girls were used to seeing on males. The females however, hand longer hair on which many of them had tied back in a pony tail, a braid, a bun or simply held back with a headband or a bandana.

If Bryony could describe them in one word, it would be; teenagers.

They looked like a bunch of teenagers, though she knew that not _all_ of them were so young as some looked around the age of her parents.

She shared a look with her friends before the stunned silence was broken.

"Chief!"

The females jumped at the shout and blinked when the toy makers all smiled up at Arthur.

"Hello all! How is everyone doing?" he greeted, moving down the aisle towards the male elf that had called out to him. Bryony and her friends quickly followed after him.

The new Santa stopped in front of a male elf that had risen from his seat and had was now grinning up at Arthur with his hands on his hips.

"New Santa is in the building!" One elf cheered, causing many of the others to cheer along playfully.

"It's good to see you haven't forgotten about the little people, boss!" Another said in a somewhat joking manner.

A female elf near Arthur nodded, "Yeah, we were almost certain you would get caught up with so much work you wouldn't come by for visits anymore."

Arthur gasped and shook his head, "What? No! I can never be too busy for you guys! You all are some of my closest friends, and you accepted me back when no one else did."

Bryony and her friends shared a guilty look. As much as they would now hate to admit it, before the whole 'missed child' fiasco, they, like many other elves, thought that Arthur was a bit of a nuisance to have around the North Pole, and thought he would be better off in the South Pole.

Now things had changed and he was regarded as a Christmas hero and was happily accepted as the new Santa, but Bryony couldn't help but feel like a complete scumbag, and standing here, she felt that most of the other elves she knew and worked with, should feel the same. Everyone liked Arthur for what he did. Had he not done so, he would have still been rejected and treated poorly. However, _here_ he seemed to have been accepted by these lower, not even ranking elves, and judging by their interactions, Arthur had been quite popular with them since _before_ he became Santa!

She would have thought more on this when Arthur spoke up again, "Why would you all think I wouldn't be coming back?"

One elf looked up from the model car he was building, "Well…we _rarely _see any of your family. I mean sure your mum has come down for a visit, but that's _every_ so often-"

"We saw you dad even less until he stopped showing up all together." A female elf added from the doll section. Most everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

"You know, we've never even _met_ your brother in person? Not _once_ has he dropped by for a visit." An older male stated with a frown.

"I don't even think Grandsanta knows any of us," an elf seated near Arthur motioned to himself and the other elves, "even exist." He said dryly.

Bryony blinked. She had never heard anyone complain so outright about the Claus family, especially when one of the family members was standing in the room with them!

Arthur however, just shrugged. "I know they've been a bit…neglectful…but I promise I wouldn't do that to you all…and I would also like to apologize on my families' behalf."

The original elf that had approached Arthur held his hands up, "Yeah lets calm down everyone! This is _Arthur_ we're talking about. I think we all know he's got our backs and we all got his, right?" At this the other elves nodded, their smiles reappearing as they all went back to work, many of them continuing their conversations they had been having before Arthur had arrived.

The elf that seemed to serve as the spokesman looked back up at Arthur, "So what brings you to our humble…noisy…crowded…smelly and a little too much on the warm side, workshop?" Though he said this with a small grimace, he finished off his sentence with a warm smile.

Arthur chuckled and rolled up his sleeves, prompting the female elves to do the same.

'He was right…it _is_ rather warm in here.' Bryony thought in discomfort. She could already feel the sweat forming on her brow.

"Well first and foremost," Arthur started, "I came by to see how everyone was doing since I know it's been a while since my last visit _and_," he held out the stack of papers he had recently printed out, "I've brought you some more orders from this upcoming Christmas."

"Ah, excellent. I'll have Jake sort these out and we'll get started on them ASAP." The elf handed the stack to another worker, who took off towards a back room. He turned back to the human and the five elves he had brought along. "And who are _these_ young ladies?" he wondered.

Arthur stepped to the side so that his old friend could get a better look at his newer ones, "This is Bryony, Norah, Sabrina, Deborah and Kathy. They're some of my new friends that I work with. Bryony is the wrapper elf that went with me to deliver Gwen's present." He motioned to the male elf, "Everyone, this is Thomas. He's, as you can see, a toy maker and specializes in cycles. Specifically, bicycles." Arthur chuckled, "In fact, he's actually the one that built Gwen's bike."

"Wow…small world." Sabrina mused.

Thomas nodded, "Very small world. Now Miss Bryony," he turned to said elf, "correct me if I'm wrong, but is your last name by any chance…_Shelfley_?"

Had she not gained the popularity she now had, Bryony would have been surprised that this random elf that she had never met knew her name. So she shrugged it off and nodded instead. "Yes sir it is."

To her surprise, Thomas gave a hearty laugh, "So _you're_ the famous Bryony that Peter was telling me about!"

The wrapping elf looked back at her friends in confusion, though she was met with equally baffled looks.

"Surly you know Peter…he's the assistant elf to Steve Claus…ring any bells?" Thomas hinted.

Bryony's eyes widened, "You…spoke to Peter…?" Never in a million years would Bryony have guessed that _Peter_ would actually talk to one of these elves. He always acted so high and mighty she couldn't imagine a reason why he would come all the way over here just to talk to an elf about her.

Thomas grinned, "Of course! He stops by my dorm every week or so to visit."

Kathy furrowed her brow in thought, "Wow, that's so…uncharacteristically nice of him. Are you a friend of his?"

"I'm his cousin."

The five elves raised their brows in shock.

"I forgot to mention, his name's Thomas _Jones_ and that he's Peter's older cousin." Came Arthur's impute.

Ignoring the young Santa, Bryony shook her head, "I didn't know he had a cousin."

"He's not the type to talk about family to other elves." Thomas replied nonchalantly.

'Apparently not.' Bryony thought, though the more she looked over Thomas, the more she could see some of Peter's traits in him. He had the same dark brown hair, styled differently of course, and his nose and ears were the same shape as Peter's. The only difference was that Thomas had dark grey eyes and light freckles across his nose and cheek bones. His attitude and personality were also much better than Peter's.

"So…what _has_ Peter been saying about me?" Bryony asked uncertainly. Thomas shrugged casually, "Oh nothing much. He just goes on about how much you enjoy wrapping, how you 'annoy' him, how he wishes he didn't have to deal with you. The usual things that guys say when they have a secret liking for someone." He winked at Bryony, who blushed.

"The complaining I can believe, but the secret admiring is surely a misinterpretation." She argued.

"That's how it starts." Thomas smirked, making Bryony's blush deepen even further.

Arthur decided that now would be a good time to intervene, "Oh come on Thomas, don't give her a hard time." He said playfully. Thomas put his hands up in surrender, "Alright, I apologize for any discomfort Miss. Shelfley." He apologized with full sincerity.

"It's fine." Bryony assured with a small smile, though inside, her mind was racing at when Thomas had told her. Peter didn't have a crush on her…did he?

"I think we should be getting back to our own work now Thomas, but I'll stop by tomorrow so we can catch up some more." Arthur announced. The worker elves all voiced their good-byes before going back to work.

As Arthur and the five females made to leave the room, Thomas called out again, "And don't be strangers ladies! You're welcome here if you ever need a break from all that military façade!"

"Well do! Thank You!" Norah replied just before the doors shut again.

With that, the sextet turned and made their way back to Arthur's office.

"Well, that was fun…and different." Deborah stated as they walked. Arthur laughed, "They're different from what you all are used too, but they're some of the nicest elves in the North Pole."

Bryony opened her mouth to reply, when a familiar figure caught her attention. "Peter?"

The group paused as they noticed the assistant elf coming down the hall.

Peter stopped and looked the group over. "What are you all doing here?"

"They joined me on my trip to drop off some orders at the toy factory." Arthur explained. Peter nodded and moved past them as they all continued on their way.

"We met your cousin," Bryony said just as Peter passed her. He froze, "he seems nice."

Peter looked her in the eye, and seeing that she was telling the truth, he swiftly turned back and made a run to the toy factory.

"Well that was odd." Deborah thought out loud before everyone resumed their journey back.

**North Pole HQ Toy Factory**

Peter panted as he pushed the doors open and ran into the toy factory. Several elves stopped and turned to see who had burst in. Seeing the familiar elf, they all turned back and resumed their work, while Peter made a beeline towards his cousin.

"Thomas?! I can I speak to you…in _private_?!" he panted, glaring at his relative.

Thomas nodded and stood up from his seat before leading Peter to one of the back rooms.

Once alone, Peter rounded on him, "You spoke to Bryony?"

"A bit yes. And before you get upset, I'll remind you that I'm happily married with four elflings, so you don't have to worry about me making a move on your crush." Thomas crossed his arms and smirked down at his younger cousin.

Peter scowled, "I _don't_ have a crush on her, and just so you know, she has a fiancé."

Thomas gave a sympathetic look, "Oh I'm sorry to hear that."

"Shut up…" Peter pinched the bridge of his nose, "did she say anything about me?"

"Only that she and her friends didn't know that you had a cousin. Other than that, she didn't say anything." Thomas replied.

Peter nodded in satisfaction, "Good."

"Is there any other reason why you dropped by for a visit?" the toy maker asked in a bored tone. Peter nodded.

"Is it that Tanya girl again?"

Peter nodded again and added, "And I also need some help on getting Tanya off my back. I need some ideas to make her loose interest in me."

Thomas glanced at his watch, "I guess I can spare a few moments of brainstorming." He said while setting up a chair for him and his cousin to sit on.

**End Chapter 12**

**Chapter 13 coming soon!**

**A/N: And there is the long awaited chapter 12. I **_**really**_ **hope this came out okay…it's been a while since I've worked on this story and I'm a little rusty. I also hope that the introduction of the toy making elves and Thomas didn't seem too random. Thomas will play a good part in this story…nothing too extreme, but I assure y'all he's here for a reason. :)**

**I'm actually planning on doodling some of these toy making elves and posting the pics on Deviantart so y'all can get a better picture of them. **

**Once again, I apologize for the, what was it? Two year delay? Like I said, college and life got a hold on me and I got busy with other projects. Now that I've graduated, updates should be coming in more frequently. :) **


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